Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or the various other songs/films/tv-shows that may be mentioned in this fic, they are just being used for non-profit for my nerdy amusement.
Much thanks to Ginger-bread88 for all the hand-holding and encouragement she has given me through the many months I have been agonizing with this story. If anyone actually likes this you have her to thank for it. Likewise if you hate it, it is also her fault! :p
Also please bare in mind that any science mentioned in this is woefully exaggerated and mostly inaccurate. I did research into the more feasible conditions that are very real but some of the symptoms, treatments and causes have been altered to fit this fic. I'm really sorry if this offends anyone but I never intended for this to be a science paper, but rather a piece of fiction for entertainment purposes.
Chapter 1: Santana
"Man being in that frat better be worth it with all the shit they are putting me through."
"Gotta pass this test or I'll never graduate, never get a good job, never marry and have the perfect family!"
"Jason is so cute! I wanna have his babies! Rebecca Marin sounds so perfect!"
"Dat ass! You could bounce coins off that ass!"
"Ugh, disgusting! Then they wonder why I am gay! Women may be crazy but at least they usually aren't disgusting." Santana didn't even get a chance to finish that thought when she walked passed a female co-ed who just leered at her and thought about how she would love to bend her over a table. "Scratch that! Women can be just as gross! This is why I am single!" She shivered in disgust and turned up her iPod hoping that the voice of Etta James would just drown out the thoughts of everyone around her. She was in the middle of an experiment and had to get back to the lab quickly if she didn't want her data to be useless. She didn't have time to be distracted by all the insignificant undergrads.
"Santana! Santana! SAN!" Santana jumped as an out of breath Tina popped up in front of her. She was trying so hard to block out the mindless chatter that she didn't realise that someone was talking to her, like out loud.
"Oh sorry Serine, I was distracted. I really need to get back to the lab. I'm in the middle of a pretty time sensitive experiment." Santana answered her friend.
"Always lost in her thoughts. All she ever thinks about is her degree and experiments." "That's ok this won't take long. This Saturday Mike is having a party for his birthday. You have to come!" Tina told her excitedly.
"Erm, I'm not sure what my schedule is like. I might have some time booked on the microscope." Santana tried to excuse herself.
"Oh I already checked! You aren't booked in this weekend." Tina replied gleefully. "Glad I checked that out before running into her!"
Santana started mumbling trying to think of an excuse not to go when she heard Tina think "You would think she doesn't like me or something. Oh my God! Is that it!? Does she really not like me!? I thought this would be better than high school! I thought I left that stuttering lonely girl behind and started over here where nobody knew me!"
The mention of high school had Santana cringing. She didn't actually meet Tina until college and by the time they got into grad school together she actually considered her one of her very few friends. But she could have easily been one of Tina's high school tormentors. She wasn't much better back at McKinley with Quinn. Just like Tina she was trying to reinvent herself in college and shed the mean girl shell. She took a deep breath to steady herself and resigned herself to suffering through a night out surrounded by drunken idiots.
"Fine, I'll come." She huffed out, cutting Tina's inner ramblings short. "But consider this repayment for that tutorial session in inorganic chemistry from last month!" She may be trying to change and be nicer but she didn't want to come off as a push over or a softy. The inner bitch still lived!
Tina gave her a blinding smile, not buying the tough act for a second and gave her a hug. "You promise?" Santana nodded. "Great! I'll email you the details, it will be awesome! A real mixture of people. Us science geeks and Mike's artsy fartsy friends."
"Sounds interesting." Santana drawled while rolling her eyes. "Well I really need to get back to the lab. Catch you later Serine."
"You'll love it I promise!" Tina shouted after her while she waved her off.
Friday night Santana got into her apartment late as usual. The only reason she even left the lab was because one of her professors happened to see her and shooed her away. "You'd think she is trying to find a cure to save her own life with the amount of time and effort she is putting into this project. I don't know if it is admirable or just sad. She really needs to get a life outside these labs! She will be putting me out of a job as soon as she graduates at the rate she is going."
Since the last thing Santana wanted was pity, especially from a stuffy old professor whose job she would definitely take over the first chance she gets, she packed up her stuff and trudged home to her cosy studio apartment for the weekend.
She made herself a cup of tea while she waited for her laptop to boot up. She might as well catch up on some of her shows in her Netflix queue since she was banished from the labs for the weekend. As soon as her laptop connected to the internet she got an email notification and a message on Skype.
She was pretty sure the Skype message would be from her parents or Quinn and they could wait. They were used to it from her. The email could be important though. It could be a breakthrough notification from one of the many science sites and journals she subscribes to.
She groaned out loud when she saw what the email actually was. "Details of the party. You better be there! You promised!" Ugh, she had totally forgotten about that. She really didn't want to go but she also didn't want to let down her friend. She could probably count on one hand how many true friends she had and Tina was good people. Her goofball dancer boyfriend wasn't too bad ether.
Resigning herself to at least putting in a short appearance tomorrow night she checked her Skype message and laughed. It was from Quinn, in her usual Quinn fashion, basically calling her out for disappearing for two weeks and not replying to any of the many methods of contact she had attempted. Checking her contact list she saw Quinn was online and quickly called her.
"Bitch, I could die and you wouldn't even know anything about it for a month!" Quinn's voice filled the small apartment from the laptop speakers as her face filled the screen.
Santana laughed and Quinn just arched her eyebrow. "Q, there isn't much I can do for you from New York if something happened to you in Boston."
"You could mourn me if I died! Not wait until after my funeral to surface and realise it is too late to say you love me or even a goodbye at least!" was Quinn's snarky reply.
Santana just rolled her eyes at her best friend's melodrama. She decided to change the subject or this could go on all night. "So what's new with you then? Anything to report?"
"I want a child Santana!" Santana nearly chocked on her sip of tea at that.
"I guess your placement at that school has been going well then? Does Puck know about this?"
"God no! I don't actually want to get pregnant right now and if I told that Neanderthal anything like that he wouldn't let me rest until he knocked me up. But they are just so cute and adorable! Especially with them going home at the end of the day and me still having the freedom to live my life." Quinn smirked into the camera.
"So have you finally decided this is the age you wanna focus on?" Santana asked. They have had this conversation quite a few times already but Quinn just can't seem to decide which age group she wants to focus on for her Education degree.
"Nooo" she drags the word out in such a whiny way that Santana doesn't know if she should laugh at her or seriously feel sorry for her. "On the one hand the young kindergartners are so cute and impressionable and they come up with the most adorable things. On the other, high schoolers have so many issues and some of them really need some guidance. I mean how different could it have been for us if we had teachers we felt we connected with and could actually talk to about our problems as opposed to people like Sue who just screamed at us through bull-horns and made our seemingly shitty lives seem even harder and terrible." Quinn continued.
Santana doesn't completely disagree. It might have been easier to discuss her questioning her sexuality with a trustworthy, understanding teacher. But her other issue…
Quinn read the look on Santana's face and her voice softened. "I know you were going through some extraordinary circumstances and I'm glad you finally confided in me at least. But I don't know how much I actually helped. Maybe it could have been better if there was an adult you could trust."
Santana sighed. "Q, don't be an idiot. You helped me plenty. You made sure I kept my sanity. And we may not have been the nicest people in high school but we survived it. And that was mainly down to you."
"Well I am glad I could help even a little bit." Quinn mumbled. "Anyway, what's new with you? I'm shocked you aren't spending the weekend in the lab again." Quinn teased, deftly changing the subject to hopefully something lighter. As long as they didn't get into why Santana was so dedicated they should be alright.
"My professor saw me and banished me for the weekend. I'm actually invited to a party tomorrow." Santana tried for nonchalance, as if she is forever going out partying like her old high school persona.
"You're going." Quinn stated. Not allowing any room for dispute.
"When did you become ruler of my life?" Santana snapped back. The fact that she had already decided to go was irrelevant. Not even Quinn got to dictate what she did. Not anymore. Her life was finally her own.
"I'm not trying to control your life. You know I would never do that. I just think you need to have some fun every once in a while. Live a little." Quinn replied softly.
"I don't know how to live." Santana almost whispered. "This project is my life. And Marco may be better now but you never know."
"I never said you had to go out and be reckless. Just relax a bit and have some fun." Quinn tried to explain.
"I already agreed to go anyway." Santana sighed resignedly.
"Why the hell are we even arguing about this then bitch!?" Quinn asked irritated.
"Because if we didn't argue then how would we communicate?!" Santana answered in a mock serious tone.
"This is true. We are pretty dysfunctional." Quinn conceded.
"And to think you want to help mold the minds of the future." Santana snarked.
"Bitch!" Quinn gasped pretending to be offended.
"Whore!" Santana retorted without missing a beat.
"Love you." Was Quinn's more sincere comeback.
"Love you more." Santana replied.
"Don't go so long ignoring me again. I worry you know." Quinn admonished softly.
"Yeah, yeah. You do know I'm not the one who is sick right?" Santana questioned.
"You don't need to have a physical ailment for me to worry."
"I know. I'll try ok? But I'm not making any promises 'cause you know I hate to break them." Santana smirked.
"Fine at least try and have some fun tomorrow night. You are allowed to live your life. And you know the occasional drink helps mute the noise for a while."
"I don't really like drinking when you aren't around." Santana confessed quietly. "It may mute the sounds but it can amplify the feelings sometimes. You know how I hate to let the waterworks start."
"Yeah I know. I'm sorry I can't be there. But still try and have some fun."
"I will. The people I know are pretty cool at least. So I shouldn't be a complete loser loner all night."
Quinn just laughed. "Can you imagine your teenaged self hearing you say that? She would kick your ass! Anyway, goodnight San and let me know how it goes tomorrow."
"Yeah goodnight. If anything interesting happens I will report back but don't hold your breath."
Santana singed off from Skype and snuggled under the covers on her bed, queuing up the episode of 'Lost Girl' she had yet to see.
Santana stood in front of her full length mirror giving herself a once over now that her ensemble was complete. OK so maybe her choices of biker boots, skinny jeans, button-up with a tight waist coat and a fedora were a bit gay but she knew she looked good. She was debating if looking this good was worth all the lewd and crude thoughts she would have to block out at the party but she decided "If I'm going I might as well try my best to have a good time and these clothes make me feel good. Maybe I'll have just the one drink to hopefully block out the most of it if I have to."
She grabbed her keys from the table by the door and headed out to the address Tina had sent her. It turned out the address was to a dance studio, the colourful 'RAINBOW FUSION' sign bright above the door. Santana vaguely remembers Tina mentioning Mike had opened a dance studio with a friend. "This must be it." she thought and braced herself to enter the fray of the party.
The lobby was surprisingly quiet and empty. Santana noticed on the reception desk a bunch of arrows pointing in all different directions. Upon closer inspection she saw that each arrow had a room number and description on it. 1A – Lounge Room, 1B – Karaoke Room, 1C- Bar, 2A – RnB Room, 2B – Disco Room, 2C – Bar.
Taking a deep breath she tried to open her mind and see if she could hear Tina. If she knew which room she was in at least it would make finding her a lot easier. She was hit with a tidal wave of voices and noise. Hoping she didn't end up with a headache by the end of this she tried again to focus on Tina's voice. Knowing her so well she should be able to distinguish it. First she managed to filter and block out all the male voices. Once that was done she tried to bring up Tina's voice in her mind and focus on if she could hear it. Amongst the many babbling thoughts she kept hearing one distinct voice spouting the most random things "Clear." "Ohh Pink! Disco has the funnest colours!" and "You show 'em Monkey!" "Wow whoever that is she must be really wasted!" Santana muttered to herself and shook her head trying to find Tina again. Finally she heard "I hope we have enough alcohol. At least the downstairs bar was more fully stocked last I checked." in Tina's familiar voice.
Satisfied that she finally had a starting point to find her friend, Santana followed the direction the arrow for the bar in 2C was pointing and headed up the stairs. Thankfully, when she got to the right room it wasn't too crowded and she managed to spot Tina easily.
Tina noticed her just as she was approaching her and she gave her a blinding smile. "Santana! You made it!" "I can't believe she actually showed up!"
"Thought I was gonna bail didn't ya?" Santana replied with a smirk. "A promise is a promise and I don't go back on my promises."
"I'm so glad you came!" Tina exclaimed. "We are gonna have so much fun! Let's go find Mike and I will introduce you to some of our friends."
Shrugging, Santana followed Tina into the Disco Room in search of Mike. It was his birthday after all. They found him, as expected, in the middle of the dance floor and they made a bee line for him.
Tina wrapped her arms around him from behind, avoiding his flailing hands to whatever dance move he was doing, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He turned around quickly and gracefully, like only a dancer can, and swooped her into his arms spinning her around to the music. Tina broke into a fit of giggles and shrieked at him to put her down. "God I love this big goofball." she thought. That brought a warm smile to Santana's face.
"Mike, Santana is here!" Tina exclaimed happily once he put her down, pointing to the girl standing to the side smiling at them.
"Hey!" Mike acknowledged excitedly leaning in to wrap Santana in a hug. "Thanks for coming." He said as he was leaning back from the hug.
"Happy Birthday! Thanks for inviting me." She smiled back at him.
"Where is everybody? I wanted to introduce Santana to them." Tina asked.
"The divas are most likely in the Karaoke Room, where else would they be, and Britt could be anywhere! You never know where she will pop up!" Mike replied with an eye roll.
"Well we might as well start with the Karaoke Room. Britt will surface at some point." Tina said grabbing Mike and Santana's hands and dragging them to the stairs.
As they were going down the stairs Santana heard the same voice from earlier "Yellow!" and she thought she heard raindrops as well even though the sky was clear of clouds when she had arrived. "Weird." Santana thought shaking her head and following the others into the Karaoke Room.
There were more people in here than the upstairs bar but not as many as the Disco Room. The small stage seemed to be surrounded while a small brunette was belting out a Celine Dion song. "Wow" Santana gasped as the girl on stage nailed a high note and held it for what seemed like forever.
She heard Tina and Mike chuckling next to her and it broke her from her reverie. "Yeah, that's Rachel Berry. Head Diva." Tina said and Mike laughed again. "She is a bit high maintenance but she is good people once you get over the motormouth and sift through the backhanded compliments." Mike added.
"And she is pretty hot." Santana thought, but didn't voice. She just nodded.
"The super-stylish, super-gay guy going through the song book is Kurt and with him is Mercedes. Come on let me introduce you properly." Tina said as she dragged Santana along by the hand again.
As they were walking towards them Rachel finished her song and Santana heard her think "Nailed it! As usual! Even in this fun and seemingly unimportant setting my vocals were perfect and far superior to everyone so far."
"Wow," Santana thought "I get the Diva moniker now!"
"Hey guys!" Tina said to the duo as they reached them interrupting their bickering. "This is my friend from college I was telling you about. Santana meet Kurt and Mercedes."
"Hey" Santana said giving a shy wave and smile.
"Ah the elusive Santana." Mercedes teased. "Nice to finally meet you. We were starting to think you were a myth!"
Kurt just waved and turned to Tina "You never said she was so stylish!" he said accusingly.
Tina laughed and replied "Well I usually just see her in jeans and a t-shirt or hoodie, but yes she is very stylish and much more than that. She was top of our undergrad class and is kicking the graduate class's ass as well."
Santana blushed and looked to the floor. "Damn Serine! Make me seem more like a dork why don't you." Santana mumbled.
The group just stared blankly at Santana while Tina laughed again. "Serine?" Kurt asked eventually making Santana blush deeper and Tina laugh harder.
"You don't need me to make you seem nerdy, you do that all on your own." Tina smirked at Santana while she glared back. Turning to her friends she explained "She calls me that because my initials TCC are the DNA codon for the amino acid Serine."
They all just kept staring blankly for a few more second before Mercedes remarked "Yeah, girl, sorry but that is pretty damn nerdy even without Tina praising your academic achievements." and they all burst out laughing.
Santana tried to maintain a scowl but looking at their faces she could feel that it was all in good fun. Like a good natured ribbing from friends and she eventually couldn't contain her grin. "Ok so they seem pretty alright." She thought to herself.
Just as they were all calming down from their laughter Rachel finally joined them after soaking up all the applause from her adoring audience.
"Who's this?" Rachel asked. "She better not be an aspiring Broadway actress!" she thought. Santana was seriously tempted to pretend she was just to see Rachel's reaction but decided she couldn't be bothered. And besides she wasn't sure just how deep her crazy ran.
Tina introduced them and Rachel looked at her skeptically for a second. "Do you sing?" Rachel demanded bluntly. Kurt slapped her arm while the others all admonished her.
"What? It was just a question!" Rachel shrieked rubbing her arm.
"Then how did you manage to make it sound like an accusation?" Kurt chastised her. Rachel just shrugged.
"Not really." Santana replied when they settled down.
"You have a lovely voice." Tina complemented her. "I've heard you when you sing along to your iPod in the lab."
"That's nothing." Santana hastened to defend herself. "I'm not that good." She insisted.
"Well now we must hear you!" Kurt enthused.
"No way will she be better than me!" Rachel thought.
"You don't seem like the type of person to back down from a challenge." Mercedes smirked. "So I challenge you to sing."
"That's playing dirty!" Santana accused. "We are gonna get along just fine." She then added to the laughter of the group.
As she was flipping through the song book to find a song she could sing she heard the voice again "A rainbow! Who's that!?" It sounded closer and she looked around but couldn't tell who it was coming from so she focused back on the folder.
Picking her song she took her place on the stage. Just as the opening notes of Amy Winehouse's 'Valerie' begun she heard the voice think "Oh I love all the purples in this song!" Santana was completely confused by that comment and almost lost when she was supposed to come into the song but she snapped out of it just in time.
She nailed it just like she knew she could and left the stage to uproarious applause in order to join her group. Everyone was congratulating and complementing her and she even picked out a grudging "She does have a really lovely tone." In Rachel's thoughts, despite her comments about teaching her about better breathing techniques.
As Santana was enjoying the attention from her new friends she heard the voice again "She is the brightest rainbow I have ever seen!" and she looked up directly into the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She got lost in those deep pools of blue and all sounds fell away from her. The only thing she heard was in her mind "So pretty." and she couldn't even be sure if it was her own thought or the beautiful blonde's in front of her.