Title: Secrets

Chapter 1

A/N: Hello! First of all, thank you for deciding to read this Fanfic. I already apologize for making any grammar/vocabulary mistakes as English isn't my first language, and I would be glad if someone pointed them out so I can correct them and improve. Anyways, I'm super insecure about uploading this, and really hope you'll all like it. I'll keep updating if people say they enjoy the story, so make sure you leave a review! Thanks! :)

"Rachel, shut - the fuck - up! " I yelled as I turned my head towards the bathroom door. "You're gonna wake up the sleeping children in China!"

The singing noises faded away and all that was left to hear was the sound of water hitting the ground of the shower and the quiet noises of the TV until Kurt interrupted the so-called silence, "Santana, I would be surprised if your screams last night didn't wake those children in China up, so back off with your comments. Seriously, who tried to stab you in your dreams?"

I wanted to defend myself, tell him that this was none of his business, but before the words could escape from my mouth, the bathroom door opened and Rachel stepped into our living room, wearing nothing but a pink bath robe and a big cloud of hot steam lurking behind her.

"Wanky," I said and smirked with a raised eyebrow, completely aware that I was upsetting her when I teased her about things like that, and I wasn't surprised about her giving me her oh-so-famous Rachel Berry killer glance before she quickly shut the curtains that parted her room from the living room behind her. I was sitting next to Kurt on the sofa and watching Harry Potter with him - although I spent my days insulting him and Rachel, I secretly really loved both of them and enjoyed Harry Potter marathons with my best friends, but I would never admit that. Rule number one I learned as a young child: A Lopez does rarely ever show any emotion that isn't anger or hate. Feelings are for weaklings. Mi abuela had taught me that before I learned how to read.

"Isn't it just so sad that they changed the actual third task? I would have loved to see the sphinx and so on, but instead we just get a pair of glowing eyes and dark labyrinth," I sighed as I sank into the sofa. "Totally agree. Again, we have proof that they were too lazy to animate the creatures and follow the storyline in the book."

We turned back to the TV, but didn't continue watching much longer, as Kurt seemed to feel like chatting with me, "So, Santana, when's your first day of work?" I had just gotten my first job in New York City, in a famous bookstore, and although I didn't think it was that big of a deal, Kurt kept asking me about it. "Monday, that's when people usually start working." I slightly rolled my eyes at the question and hoped my short answer made it clear to him that I would like to watch the movie. And it looked like Kurt had understood, so we sat in silence for the next thirty seconds. Then Rachel left her room and joined us on the already crowded sofa, and at the same time, my phone started ringing. Oh why don't you come on over, Valerie?

I jumped off the couch and ran towards my bedroom. Where was it? I searched through the pillows, clothes and blankets on my bed, where the music was coming from, and found it buried under a fluffy pink pillow. I quickly answered without looking at the display, afraid I might miss the phone call. "Hello?" "Miss Lopez?" I didn't recognize the voice at first. "Um, yes?" "Good morning. This is Holly Holliday." Now I remembered. She was my new boss.

I hadn't figured out how someone like her could own a book store, but I had liked her attitude so much I was convinced she would be fun to work with. "Ah! Hello." I decided it was appropriate to behave as politely as someone raised in Lima Heights could possibly behave, considering this woman paid me, and I had learned the hard way that I was more polite if I acted shy and didn't talk too much.

"So, I know your first day is on Monday, and it's only Thursday, but this is an emergency. One of our employees decided not to turn up today, and of course that means big trouble for him, but the actual problem is that we are a bit overstrained…you know how busy New York is, and ain't nobody got time for waiting in NYC, which is why we could need some help. So…do you mind working today?"

If I wasn't a tiny bit excited for my new job and if the weather outside wasn't particularly nice today, I would have made up an excuse to not go to work. But I just assumed it would be smart to show how flexible I was, and due to this it wasn't a surprise that I happily replied how I didn't mind at all. I told Miss Holliday I would be there, hung up, and put my phone on my nightstand.

I turned around and faced Kurt and Rachel, whose faces expressed exactly what I was thinking. What the hell. So I explained what had just happened, and Rachel's wide eyes almost screamed how she couldn't believe someone would ask me to work for them. I tried not to let my second personality Snix (or my inner Rapunzel?) take over my body and hit her in the face with a pan, and mumbled, "I have to take a shower and get dressed." I turned on my heel and flounced into the bathroom, where I took my pajamas off and showered quickly. I wrapped a towel around my chest and stepped out of the bathroom, the sae big cloud of hot steam lurking behind me that had haunted Rachel before.

Back in my room, the curtains shut behind me; I dropped the towel on my bed and opened my drawers. What do you wear on your first day to work? I guessed I should save the sexy Latina style for later, and picked jeans and a T-Shirt. After rubbing my hair as dry as possible and putting it up in a ponytail, I brushed my teeth and grabbed a bag from the corner of my room to put my phone, purse and keys in. Then, I said goodbye to Kurt and Rachel and took a taxi to work.

I told the barely English speaking taxi driver where I wanted to go, and ten minutes later, he stopped in front of the store. Pierce's Ink was printed above the door in bold letters, and I wondered if Pierce was Miss Holliday's real last name, because it wouldn't surprise me if she had just made up a last name to use instead of her real one.

Through the windows and door I could see tons of books. Bookshelves that ran around corners, multiple meters high, all of them filled with books. I had always wanted a big library with thousands of old books in it when I was younger, literature had been a guilty pleasure of mine ever since I could remember. The image of Santana Lopez, the hot lesbian bitch who was friends with Kurt Hummel and Rachel Berry, probably the most unpopular people in the whole school, who loved everything that a popular person would never give a shit about, made me feel uncomfortable. So, every time I heard someone at school speak about a book that I had read and loved, I had to resist the temptation of joining their conversation. Not even Kurt and Rachel knew how much I actually loved books.

I entered the building and the scent of new paper crawled up my nose. I looked around for employees on this floor.

When I spotted a young man behind a counter cashing up, I walked towards him, stood next to him behind the counter, and waited until the current customer had left. When he noticed me and turned to the side to face me, I said, "Excuse me?" I gave him the most charming smirk I could force my lips to form. He cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me, but do you work here? Only employees are allowed to stand behind the counter. If you wanna buy something, queue up." He tried to look confident, but then noticed that I wasn't holding anything in my hands except for my bag and that my smirk hadn't faded away yet, and that's when I saw the fear in his eyes build up.

Still, I didn't want to ruin this yet, so I decided I was going to be nice. "Yes, I'm Santana, a new employee, and it's my first day today, so I assume I need to see Miss Holliday. Do you know where I can find her?" His gigantic fish lips turned into a warm smile when he replied, "Oh, welcome! I'm Sam. Holly should be in her office, just down that way. There's a sign on the door." "Thanks. See you later, I guess." I walked into the next big part of the store while admiring my own acting abilities, where I spotted signs on the ceiling.

In a corner next to another bookshelf, I saw a wooden door saying "employees only", and figured this was the door Sam had mentioned. I opened the door and walked down the small hallway, passing a few doors having signs like employees only or cleaners' equipment or private bathrooms on them, and finally I reached the door that said Holly Holliday's office. Before I could even get anxious I knocked on the door, opened it, and then poked my head in. "Miss Holliday? I'm Santana Lopez." She had been sitting on her Laptop typing, but as soon as the woman noticed me, she jumped up and almost ran towards me. She grabbed my hand and shook it energetically, telling me how glad she was that I had arrived about three times.

She led me back into the store, and explained that I should try to remember where everything was when it wasn't as busy so I could help people who were specifically looking for something. Then, she led me to Sam, and told him to show me how the till works and then make me cash up instead so he could stand at the help desk. Now I got anxious as I was seeing so many people who were gonna get super annoyed by the time it was their turn to pay, but then Sam asked them to leave and pay at the counter on the second floor instead.

Fortunately, they all left, so I didn't feel like people were watching me all the time. Sam carefully explained everything to me. He made me practise cashing a few times and said he was gonna wait next to me while I tried to sell the first few books.

The very first person to come was an old lady. I was grateful she was just as slow as me and she didn't seem to mind that it took me a while to give her her change, and she even smiled at me when she left. She probably just pitied me, but it was the nice gesture that counted.

The next few customers weren't as easy to serve. One didn't speak English at all and I wondered why he bought an English book, but Sam said I wasn't allowed to judge people by the books they buy, so I didn't comment on it.

When I was done with him, the next guy kept staring at my boobs, which made me feel really uncomfortable. Sure, my boobs were amazing, considering I had gotten a boob job a few years ago, but that didn't mean I wanted people trying to undress me with their eyes.

Also, when I had decided to work at a book store, I had assumed I was gonna be surrounded by nerds and not perverts.

I was nearly thankful when the next woman was just one of those who started looking for their purse in their bag when I told them how much they needed to pay, as if it had never occurred to them that they might actually need to pay for their book and who didn't seem to realise that they were in a crowded store in New York City.

But I think the woman got the message since she started rifling through her bag a bit faster when I rolled my eyes at her. Apparently the "pretend-to-be-confident-method" worked really well. Of course it did, I had never done anything else all my life. It didn't take long until Sam lightly patted my shoulder and said he thought I didn't need him anymore.

He left and I started getting a bit more nervous, which was ridiculous, as using a till wasn't very hard, but I soon realised that, so I calmed down a bit. When I shot a quick glance at the clock at the other end of the room, I realised I had already been here for forty-five minutes, and I was surprised how fast time passed. I got better at changing money and had to tell three people to seek help at the information desk, as I was only supposed to sell the books, and they shot evil glares at me for having to stand in line for so long, but I just kept telling myself it was not my fault.

I kept working for a few hours, and soon Holly stopped at my side to tell me that we were going to shut for lunch break soon and to come with her so I could learn shutting the door properly. I left the customers with confused looks on their faces and followed my boss. Surprisingly, she didn't lead me to the front door but up to the second floor, where another blonde was working behind a counter. Holly crossed the room until she stood next to her, and then said, "Hey Quinn, this is Santana, our new employee. Santana, this is Quinn." "Hi Quinn," I greeted the blonde. "Can you show her how to get the store ready for Lunch Break?" Holly asked. Now my usual game would start. Figure out what kind of person someone is, if they're nice, befriend them, if they're not, destroy them.

Quinn nodded, stepped away from the counter, crossed her arms over her chest and walked away. I had to hurry a bit to follow her, and when we had arrived at the front door, she had still not said a single word.

"Okay, so, at first you shut the roller blinds. You should be familiar with how to do that. Then you take the keys that you'll get later, and put them in here," she led me to a row of light switches and put a key in one of the keyholes. She didn't even bother greeting me or looking at me more than twice. "Now people can't come in when they're outside, but everyone in here can still leave. I know you probably haven't got technology like this in Mexico, but since you're now working here I assume you've been living here for long enough to understand how to use a keyhole."

And those words woke Snix. I could feel her move in her sleep. "Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow. "What? Do you want me to repeat what I said? Am I talking too fast for the tiny bits of English people learn where you're from?" I stepped a bit closer to her and already regret it when I realised I was at least an inch shorter than her, but I straightened m back and gave her the Santana-Lopez-death-glare.

"No, I can understand everything you say clearly, because first of all, I'm not Mexican but Hispanic, and second of all, I was born and raised in the United States, in a place called Lima Heights, and if you wanna know how people treat people like you in Lima Heights, go on being racist. I bet it's fun to belong to the part of the community that would be accepted by Hitler, but I guarantee you it's more fun not being my enemy, so I suggest you shut up with your racist comments and let me lock the door." Her face went blank. I could feel her struggle with what to say and what to keep to herself, and when she turned on her heels and pranced back up the stairs, I nearly laughed out loud.

When I went back to where I had been working, I could hear the first people leave. When I continued serving the employees, I saw more people leaving and it got quieter soon (although it had never been really loud in here, despite it was so busy.) Twenty minutes later, I came to my last customer, a girl my age. Her hair was blonde like Quinn's, but it looked natural and not like she dyed it.

She smiled like it was the best day of her life, showing two rows of perfectly white teeth, and confidently held her book called My Cat And I Have Trust Issues out to me when it was her turn to pay. I smiled at the weird book title and thought I had to find out whether this title was kind of a joke, and realised the was already waiting to hand me the exact money she had to pay. So I opened my hand and she carefully let the money drop onto my hand. I sorted the money into the till, put the book in a small bag and handed it to her.

"Here you go. Have a nice day," I smirked. "Thanks; you, too. Bye!" She turned around and I watched her leave. Her ponytail dangled with each step. Once I realised I had been staring, I quickly looked away and acted like I was looking for customers that hadn't been served yet. Yet, when the girl opened the door to leave, my eyes went back to her. And she turned around and looked at me. I was too surprised to look away, so when she gave me a warm smile, I just stood there grinning like an idiot, and when I realised what I was doing, she had already left. To anyone else, this would have been weird. But I didn't even question my sudden interest in random people anymore.

I sometimes had these moments and I wasn't gonna see these people ever again anyways, so I just shrugged to myself and waited at the counter.

A few minutes later, Holly came gave me the keys Quinn had talked about earlier and told me I didn't need to work after the break today, but should come tomorrow, so I was allowed to go home.

Since I was in no rush to get anywhere, I took the bus home.

When I entered the apartment, I declared, "I'm home, ladies!" I got a reply only seconds later. "How was your first day at work?" "Great," I announced as I sat down next to Kurt, who was either still watching TV, or doing so again. He wasn't watching Harry Potter anymore, so I assumed he had finished the movie without me.

"No further information?" He raised an eyebrow, and I rolled my eyes. "Well, my boss is awesome; I met my colleagues Sam and Quinn today, and came to the conclusion that you should date Sam if he's gay, and that we should make up a plan to kill Quinn, and I sold like a million books. Is that enough information or do you require a list of which people bought which books written by which author?"

Kurt opened his mouth to reply, but in that moment Rachel stormed out of her room with her hands on her hips. "Obviously, Kurt, you care so much about Santana's new job that requires nothing but courtesy, and I still haven't figured out how somebody like her has gotten a job like that, but yet you don't show any interest in my mind-blowing performance at NYADA today that even gained applause from Carmen Tibideaux and is one to remember until my dying day?" I sighed and rolled my eyes as obviously as possible.

"Okay Rachel, first of all, I lost track a while ago because you kinda forgot that something like punctuation exists, and second, maybe Hummelgay would be interested in your narcissistic stories if you didn't come up with a new one every twenty minutes. Also I just got home, and the last thing I wanna do is hear your voice right now, so please do me a favour and stop talking, just for half an hour. I've got a headache and would like to get rid of it without swallowing an unbelievable amount of pills, because you know that I'm really bad at that."

Rachel's face displayed pure shock and horror. Her jaw dropped. I assumed that Kurt on the other side of me didn't look much different, and I figured there was nothing left to do for me, so I stormed into my room, shut the curtains furiously, and jumped onto my bed. I buried my face in the sheets and appreciated the rare moment of silence in the apartment. I surely did have to apologize sooner or later, but right now, I would cherish the moment of shock and enjoy how nobody dared to speak.

A/N: Well...thanks for reading! I know there hasn't been any Brittana interaction yet, but please remember that this is just the first chapter and I wanna take things slow (I'm not gonna take things slow, as I noticed when I wrote the third chapter). I just felt like I needed to introduce you to Santana's life first. Make sure to review! :)