Santana Lopez walked into her dorm room. She'd been staying in the same room since sixth grade when she'd began attending Westerly Academy, a boarding school in Malibu, California. She'd had the same roommate the entire time and they'd quickly become best friends. Now, going into junior year, she still had her room, but not her best friend. Brittany Pierce had been expelled at the end of thier sophomore year, but not because she had done anything wrong. She had taken the blame so that Santana didn't get caught with pot on campus. Santana felt like an incredibly horrible best friend for letting Brittany do that and a douche for never saying anything. She sighed as she saw Brittany's bed. Every year, Brittany had always arrived before Santana. This was the first time she'd ever walked in on the first day of move in and not seen Brittany. She was silently hoping that she wouldn't get a new roommate, just in case Brittany somehow managed to get back into Westerly. She began to unpack her things.
Rachel Berry was frantically trying to find the registration line. She wanted to find her room. She had never been to boarding school before, but she had insisted that her dads not accompany her to registration. She finally found the line and saw that it was considerably shorter than she had anticipated. Within fifteen minutes, she was at the front of the line and was talking to the faculty member that was working the table.
"Hi. My name is Rachel Berry. I'm a new student at Westerly Academy this year." Rachel introduced herself. The teacher, a red-haired woman with rather large eyes and a huge bow on her shirt smiled up at Rachel.
"Hello Rachel. My name is Ms. Pillsbury. I'm the guidance counselor here at Westerly. Let's get you situated." Ms. Pillsbury said. She looked through a stack of files until she found Rachel's. Looking through it, she smiled as she read the file. "Well, you certainly are involved in many extra-curricular activites." Ms. Pillsbury commented. Rachel nodded in agreement.
"I try to get involved in everything I can. Extra-curriculars look great on college applications." Rachel said. Ms. Pillsbury nodded absently as she continued to read.
"You were a member of the Black Student Organization?" she asked, looking up at Rachel curiously. Rachel nodded.
"One of my fathers is black. I have always considered myself to be half-black, even though I have no idea which one of my dads is my biological father." Rachel said. Ms. Pillsbury nodded again and continued reading.
"And you were in the choir at your old school which was... William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio." she said.
"Briefly. I was... asked to leave because of my desire to always be in front. They had us stand on risers like statues. I prefer to move around while I sing." Rachel said. Ms. Pillsbury smiled.
"Like a show choir." she said. Rachel nodded. "Well, we have a new club this year. Its a Glee Club and that's exactly what they do. They move around, do choreography, and all that fun stuff. You might consider checking it out." Ms. Pillsbury offered. Rachel smiled.
"I'd love to. Who would I contact?" Rachel asked.
"Mr. Schuester. He's also our Spanish teacher. There's a club fair in the commons tomorrow at 4 . He'll have a booth." Ms. Pillsbury said. Rachel nodded.
"I'll be sure to stop by. Can I get my room assignment, please?" Rachel asked.
"Oh! Right. I'm so sorry about that. You'll be staying in room 324 of Kenting Hall, which is two buildings away from here. You'll have a roommate, her name is Santana Lopez. She's a junior, just like you. Here, I'll escort you to your room and explain everything to Santana." Ms. Pillsbury said. Rachel nodded and followed the woman to her room.
Santana was still unpacking. She came across a framed picture of herself and Brittany. She ran a finger over the blonde's face and sighed. "I'm so sorry, B." she whispered. She slightly jumped when there was a knock on her door. She set the frame down and walked over to open the door. She sighed as she saw the guidance counselor. "Ms. Pillsbury, I told you. I don't need weekly counselling sessions. I'm good now." Santana said.
"No, Santana. I'm not here about that. I've brought your new roommate." Ms. Pillsbury said. Santana swallowed hard.
"So... B's really not coming back?" Santana asked. Ms. Pillsbury smiled apologettically.
"Santana, we talked about this. Brittany's been expelled." Ms. Pillsbury said softly. Santana nodded.
"Fine, where is she?" Santana asked, referring to her new roommate. Ms. Pillsbury moved aside so that a small girl was in Santana's line of vision. Santana gave her a once over and resisted rolling her eyes. The girl could have been hot, if it weren't for the clothes. Her new roommate was decked out in a black pleated skirt with an red and blue argyle sweater and knee socks. She had a headband and on her feet were penny loafers.
"Santana Lopez, meet Rachel Berry. Rachel, this is Santana." Ms. Pillsbury said. The smaller girl stuck her hand out. It was obvious she expected to shake Santana's hand, so Santana reluctantly took the girl's hand and shook it before quickly pulling it back. "Well, I'll just leave you two to get to know each other." Ms. Pillsbury said, walking down the hall. Santana opened the door wider to allow the girl into the room.
"Hello, Santana. I'm looking forward to getting to know you." the girl said. (Santana had already forgotten her name.)
"Sure uh..." 'Think Santana. Think.' "Rachel?" she guessed the girl nodded. 'Good save, Lopez' Santana thought. She stared motionless as Rachel set her things down on Brittany's bed. Rachel looked up.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this your bed? I just assumed..." Rachel trailed off, looking at the stuff Santana had put on her own bed. Santana shook her head.
"No. You're fine. Its just... that was my friend's bed. We used to share this room." Rachel opened her mouth, but Santana cut her off. "Do you need help bringing all your stuff in? Because it's just sitting in the hallway." Santana said. Rachel nodded and Santana assisted in bringing Rachel's belongings in. After everything was in the room, Santana closed the door.
"Thank you, Santana." Rachel said.
"No problem. So where are you from?" Santana asked. Rachel looked slightly shocked at the Latina's attempt at small talk, but quickly recovered.
"I'm from a small town in Western Ohio. You've probably never heard of it." Rachel said. Santana raised an eyebrow.
"My mom lives in Western Ohio. Try me." Santana said. Rachel nodded.
"Uh... its called Lima." Rachel said. Santana raised both eyebrows. "Have you heard of it?" Rachel asked. Santana nodded.
"My mom lives in Lima. I was born there, actually. We moved when I was three and my parents got divorced when I was in fifth grade. My mom moved back to Lima, where she grew up, and my older brother and I stayed living with my dad." Santana said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"Really? What does your mom do? Maybe I've heard of her." Rachel said.
"Her name is Lucilia Ramirez. She's some bigshot real estate agent... well as big as you can be in a town as small as Lima. She's one of the partners in Ramirez and Fabray Real Estate. The other partner, Judy Fabray, she has a daughter who goes here. Quinn Fabray. She lives in Franklin, the next building over. Do you know her?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head. "That doesn't surprise me. She came here in seventh grade. That was the year her parents moved to Lima." Santana said.
"You mentioned that you and your brother stayed with your dad. Where do you live?" Rachel asked.
"My dad got a job in New York City. That's why we moved in the first place. He's the president of some big time advertising agency. We live in the Upper East Side." Santana said. Rachel nodded. "Have you ever been to New York?" Santana asked. Rachel shook her head.
"I've always wanted to, though." Rachel said.
"You should go someday." Santana said. Rachel smiled.
"Do you visit Lima often?" Rachel asked. Santana shook her head.
"My mom and I don't have the best relationship... the reason she moved back to Lima is because the guy she cheated on my father with, aka, my step-father, lives there. The divorce is actually the reason I came here in the first place. My dad didn't want me and my brother around all that arguing and fighting and legal stuff." Santana said. Rachel nodded.
"Your brother goes here?" Rachel said. Santana shook her head.
"He graduated two years ago. He's starting his sophomore year at Yale this year." Santana said. Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"Yale? Impressive." Rachel said. Santana nodded.
"So do you have any siblings?" she asked. Rachel shook her head. "Oh... why'd you decide to come to Westerly?" Santana asked.
"I have a couple of friends that go here and I was tired of Lima, so I convinced my parents to let me come." Rachel said. Santana nodded.
"I wasn't aware there were more people from Lima here." Santana said.
"They aren't from Lima. One's from Atlanta, one's from Washington, D.C., and the other's from Philadelphia. I met them at a camp that I went to every summer growing up." Rachel said. Deciding this conversation was coming to a close, she changed the subject. "This room is lovely. And the view is beautiful." she commented. Santana nodded in agreement.
"Just be thankfully we have a corner room." Santana said. Rachel looked confused. "The corner rooms are generally larger than all the other rooms and they have their own bathrooms. In sixth grade, my first year here, Brittany and I got stuck in the worst room you could imagine. It was disgusting. Somehow, we managed to convince a couple of girls in our grade to switch. I can't remember how, but we did. And that's how we ended up in here." Santana said. Rachel nodded.
"And they were just okay with living in a disgusting room?" Rachel asked. Santana shrugged.
"They got their parents to donate money to have it renovated. It's nice, but having your own bathroom still beats sharing a bathroom with the rest of the hall." Santana said. Rachel nodded in agreement. She sat down on a free spot in her bed.
"So... this girl you're talking about... Brittany..." Rachel said. Santana raised an eyebrow.
"What about her?" Santana asked.
"Uh... Ms. Pillsbury mentioned that she got expelled... what did she do?" Rachel asked. Santana stared at her and for a moment, Rachel was fearful for her life. "That is, if you want to tell me..." Rachel trailed off.
"I don't." Santana snapped.
"I... I'm sorry, Santana. I didn't mean to pry." Rachel stammered.
"Well you did. How about we just unpack in peace and silence?" Santana asked, turning away from Rachel and ignoring Rachel's final attempts to talk to her. Finally, Rachel gave up and returned to her own unpacking in silence. There had never been a silence so uncomfortable in that room.