Santana Lopez wasn't what you would call your typical high school cheerleader. With exceptions to her family and her best friend, she played the facade of the normal American girl quite well. The Latina was Head Bitch In Charge at McKinley High School, and the secret that she hid well underneath her Cheerios skirt didn't affect her status. Keyword: secret. If anyone knew about her extra appendage she would probably become a Lima Loser faster than you can say Ohio.
Speaking of Ohio…
"What's the capital of Ohio?" Mrs. Hagberg questioned her class. "Brittany," the teacher called when the tall blonde raised her hand immediately.
"O!" the blonde answered without hesitation. Brittany felt a sense of pride within her until the class started laughing. Laughing at her.
"Do you even know who the president is?" Mrs. Hagberb squawked.
"Will-i-am," Brittany responded quickly.
This time the class laughed even harder. The almost-ever present smile on Brittany's bright face fell as she listened to her peers mock her. Santana, who was sitting to the left of Brittany, had a confused look on her face after hearing Brittany's answer. But that was her Britt-britt, always being outspoken about her thoughts whether they made sense to the normal human population or not. Santana would hate to think what things would be like if her best friend was normal.
"Boring, things would be extremely boring," Santana decided in her head. She loved her best friend for the amazing, bubbly, perfect person she was. It wasn't Brittany's fault that people couldn't see past her outlandish bursts and realize how intelligent and genuine she actually was. And so what Brittany was different from the normal, blonde high school cheerleader stereotype?
"Different couldn't be anymore beautiful," the brunette thought as she glanced over at the crestfallen blonde, pulling one of Brittany's hands out of her lap to link her mocha-colored pinky to Brittany's pale one. And the brunette knew all about being different as she sat uncomfortably in her special, tight underwear concealing her well underneath her short Cheerios skirt.
Not liking to see her best friend upset, Santana shot her infamous Lopez scowl around the classroom. With her reputation of coming from Lima Heights and taking shit from no one, her classmates instantly shut up.
"Much better," the Latina thought to herself when the students became silent. Santana leaned over to Brittany when she noticed the faint red tinge of embarrassment still staining her best friend's cheeks.
"Don't worry about those fuckers Britt. I bet none of them could name half of the cat diseases that you know. And besides, I like your answers better," Santana whispered soothingly into the blonde's ear, squeezing her pinky for a little extra reassurance.
The rest of the class was spent in silence, as no one wanted to get on the fiery Latina's bad side again. Complete silence except for the soft humming coming from the brunette. But she was only humming loud enough for Brittany and her own ears. Songbird had become one of Brittany's favorite songs after the brunette had meaningfully sung it last year in order to cheer her sad, little panda up.
Finishing up the worksheet Mrs. Hagberg handed out, Santana glanced over at Brittany to check the answers that the blonde put down. Yes, Brittany was intelligent in her own way, but that didn't mean Santana didn't want the blonde dancer to graduate on time over a stupid history class. A stupid, pointless subject where the teacher was so out of wack, that she sincerely thought Germany won the Second World War. Being the beginning of senior year, Santana was currently applying to colleges and thinking about the future. A lot. It helped that her and Brittany survived the Cheerios for four years, and that they had won several national championships—that looked really prestigious on their applications, especially letters of recommendations from one Sue Sylvester. However, Santana feared that Brittany's grades would not allow them to attend the same college, be roommates, take the same electives, get drunk at frat parties together, be open and out with each other. In her head, Santana had it all planned out. For her, Brittany was it; she just hadn't gotten around to telling the blonde dancer that yet.
Thinking about being with the blonde in the future, Santana looked over at Brittany with a cheesy grin on her face. The blonde was steadfast in concentration holding her pencil in her right hand with the tip of the eraser in her mouth. Brittany's eyebrows were scrunched on her forehead as her sparkling sapphire eyes moved over the paper. Santana stifled a giggle at how Brittany could have such a serious expression and be so damn cute at the same time.
"What?" Brittany pouted when she heard the muffled laugh, "Did I get one wrong?" She tilted her head to the side to meet a gorgeous pair of brown eyes studying her contentedly. The blonde couldn't hold her pout for long when she realized that Santana didn't even set eyes on her paper, but was just staring at her the whole time. Santana staring at her like that, like she was the only person in the world, made Brittany's chest feel funny and her heart thump a little harder. Brittany knew that one of Lord Tubbington's cat girlfriends had heart problems, and her little kitty heart didn't beat right. But Brittany also knew that her heart problem was nothing like that of Princess Fluffella. Over the course of the past year, her heart had been played with, stepped on, broken, and healed mostly all by the same person. The same very person that was making her heart palpitate like crazy right now.
"Hmm, let me see," Santana murmured as she scooted her chair closer, brushing shoulders with the fair-skinned blonde.
"Well…" Santana spoke after a moment of scanning over Brittany's worksheet, "All your answers are right, except you forgot to write to name. But you did write my name. With a heart next to it," Santana said teasingly.
"That's cause you're my best friend and I love you San," Brittany stated as a matter of fact. "Did you see the little duck family I drew too?"
Santana's eyes followed the direction of Brittany's pointer finger to where a cute assortment of duck doodles were drawn, all lined up and following a trail that eventually came to the edge of the page.
"That one's the mama the duck," Brittany instructed as her finger touched a spot on the paper.
"And I'm guessing that one is the papa duck?" Santana questioned as she pointed to the duck doodle that was bigger than the little ducklings but about the same size as the one that Brittany called the mama duck.
"No, that one's the mommy duck," Brittany corrected.
"But Britt you just said that one was the mother duck," Santana said beginning to be confused as she pointed to the original duck that Brittany dubbed "mama."
"No silly," Brittany giggled as she corrected the brunette again, "That one is the mama, and that one," she said as she directed her finger to the second adult duck, "is the mommy duck."
Santana's mouth sat slightly ajar as she contemplated what Brittany was implying.
"You see now? They're just a family of mallards," Brittany explained, "Well actually I think the mommy duck is more of a billiard…"
"What?" Brittany asked as she looked over to see Santana giving her that bright smile that she didn't wear quite enough.
Santana chuckled softly before clearing her voice, "They're really good drawings Britt-britt. Just don't forget to write your name."
Soon after scribbling her name at the top, and turning both her and Santana's papers in, the bell rang signaling the end of history.
The rest of the day went by with bells ringing and teachers droning on in monotone voices. Cheerios practice was hell as usual, but this year would be their best yet. Their last chance to make something out of themselves at William McKinley High School. That and Glee. The girls wanted a win on both sides, that would be a perfect senior year for them.
Well, honestly a perfect year for Santana would be having Brittany as her girlfriend, but she didn't know if the blonde felt the same about her. Yeah they cuddled and even kissed sometimes, but Brittany just liked kissing and cuddling in general. The two of them hadn't had sex since Brittany broke things off with Artie last year. Santana saw this as an opportunity given to her, and she didn't want to screw things up. Santana wanted to do it right this time, and of course she wanted to have sex with Brittany—I mean the girl was beautiful, who wouldn't? But, Santana didn't want the next time they have sex to just be them fooling around or drunk after a party. After admitting how much Brittany meant to her last year, Santana wanted to prove how special the blonde was. And that wasn't going to get accomplished by letting her dick control her mind and give into her teenage hormones. No, the only way things would work is if things were taken slowly this time. She wanted to be sure that Brittany felt the same before their cuddle sessions and sleepovers got too sexual.
It was literally a hard task for Santana, but she loved Brittany and would hate to admit it, but the Latina was wrapped around the blonde's finger. She would do anything for the dancer.
Waiting on a bench in the girls' locker room after practice, Santana thought back to class today when Brittany said she loved her. Best friends were allowed to love each other, right? Yeah, loving someone is a lot different from being in love with someone. So, as crazy as Santana drove Brittany last year with her mixed signals, Santana felt as if the roles were reversed and now Brittany was sending her confusing messages. The brunette rolled her eyes at herself for over-thinking things and thought about the Sweet Valley High episodes at her house that were just waiting to be watched. Brittany and her were supposed to be heading over to her house after school, the only current problem being that Brittany—
—Oh, there Brittany was. The blonde appeared around the corner of the row of lockers with her arms over her head, stuck in her shirt. The shirt covered her head and up, but left her pink bra clad chest wide on display. With her arms stretched above her head, the dancer's toned abs looked even more defined.
"San?" Brittany called.
Santana felt her jeans tighten, staring at the blonde. The thought that with just a little snap of the bra clasp, the blonde's breasts could be on full display, sent shivers down Santana's spine and made blood rush to a certain appendage.
"San?" Brittany called again a little louder this time.
Santana gulped, "Uh, sorry B. Need some help?"
"Yes please."
Santana made her way over to blonde, inhaling the delicious smell of Brittany's body soap. Strawberries. She carefully pulled Brittany's blonde ponytail through the shirt before pull it slowly down onto the dancer's chest.
"There you go, now let's get the hell out of here," Santana said coolly trying to shake off her nerves and hormones at the same time. Santana Lopez was a badass. She didn't get nervous. Ever. It was a rule. But every rule has it's exceptions. Brittany had to be her exception.
"Thanks Sanny," Brittany said airily as she picked up her bag from the bench. Before, exiting the locker room Brittany glanced over to Santana who was still in close proximity, retrieving her own bag. Santana stood up straight as Brittany positioned herself directly in front of her. Eyes locked on eyes, wandering down to lips, just watching each other for a painstakingly long time. Santana would have leaned in and gone for the kiss by now, but she wanted to know that it just wasn't her that was initiating everything. The blonde eventually fluttered her eyes closed and brushed her pink lips against the brunettes' softly before pulling back.
"What was that for?" Santana asked breathlessly.
"You're always helping me out San. Thank you. Now let'z gets going, I wanna watch meh some Sweet Valleyz High," Brittany began slipping into Santana's faux ghetto voice as she headed towards the exit of the locker room. But the blonde didn't exit without throwing a well-directed wink over her shoulder.
Even though Santana behaved herself all summer around Brittany, she thought that the blonde wasn't going to make this whole "taking it slow" thing easy. The Latina let out a deep breath as she focused her energy on calming her hormones down.
"Here goes nothing and everything," Santana sighed as she exited the locker room and traveled down to the back parking lot where she knew Brittany and her beautiful self would be waiting for her on the hood of her car.