"We're having a Christmas party."
The news hit the group like a wave, causing them all to first stare at Will as he announced, a smile plastered onto his face, and then to rise up from their seats and give whoops of cheer, jumping onto each other and giggling excitedly, like little children let loose in a sweet shop, like puppies being introduced to their new master.
"Now, everybody has to contribute, so we need people to buy stuff, people to give us a place to stay, all that. So, any takers?" he asked, grabbing a chair and sitting before them, smiling as he prepared a blank notepad in his mind, ready to note and take down.
"I can buy drinks, Mr Schue."
"OK, Puck, but no alcohol."
"Quinn and I will take care of the Secret Santa contest!"
"Urm, I wasn't aware we were having one, Rachel but…OK. Sure."
"Blaine and I will get the decorations going, right honey."
"Right! That is…if that's OK with you, Mr Schue."
"Sure boys, go ahead."
"I can look after music."
"Can I help?"
"Alright so Sam and Artie got the mix. What else we got?"
"Mr Schue?"
"Yes, Santana?"
"My uncle has this field we can rent out and we can build a tent to stay under and all that. Kind of beats staying at someone's house all night, huh?"
"I like that idea. Talk to your Uncle for me and we can get started on the planning."
"Will do, Mr Schue."
"So, New Directions, get ready for the best Christmas party ever!"
The bell rang, signaling them all to get up and start to walk out of the choir room, clustering off into their groups as they did. Rachel and Quinn walked together towards the door, starting to talk rapidly about how they would go about the whole contest. Puck was already grabbing his cell phone, calling somebody about wine coolers and sparkling cider. Sam and Artie were already connected by their ears to Artie's iPhone as he flipped through remix after remix, and Kurt was listing off colours and words like 'baubles' and 'mistletoe' to Blaine.
Santana caught up with Quinn and Rachel, Brittany attached firmly to her hip as they walked on. The four of them had become closer ever since Rachel dumped Finn and started dating Quinn. Quinn had actually gone to Santana and Brittany for advice, calling them 'lesbian gurus' and they had happily helped them go about their whole first date business as smoothly as possible. Now, Santana was proud to say that Quinn and Rachel – or Faberry as everyone seemed to call them – where the new Brittana.
"So, guys, ready to embark on the Seven Cs of Christmas?"
Rachel turned her head to look at the taller girl, raising her eye brow slightly, questioningly. "I beg your pardon, Santana?"
"Please, don't tell me you've never heard of them!"
The three other girls shook their head, and Santana sighed as they stopped at Quinn's locker.
"OK, look, it's a Lopez family tradition. We were under the impression everyone at school knew about them because we were always so open about it. Anyways, there are seven Cs to Christmas: Candy, Carols, Credit Cards, Carrot Cake, Canopy, Christmas Prayers, Christmas Eve. In that order, one every day until the twenty-fifth."
"So how do we go about it?" Quinn asked, fishing her algebra book and calculator out of her locker.
"Easy. Just follow my lead, you'll be fine."
Candy
18th December
"Got the bags."
"Yep!" Mike grinned, holding the empty paper bags up and grinning. Each one of them had been painted with white and red stripes with a giant 'CANDY' emblazoned on the side. "Ready for filling!"
"Good. Everyone, take a bag."
The group went forward, each taking a bag and clutching it by the makeshift handles Mike had put on it. "Our mission is simple; everybody has to fill their bag with candy. Mr Schue wants us to have a safe party, so we'll just get high on sugar. And besides Christmas is all about the sugar! So, everybody buy as much as you can! We're all bringing it with us to the party on Christmas Eve and sharing, so bring a variety of sweets, everyone! And you're all using your own money. Got it?"
"Sir yes sir!" Puck jokingly shouted out, sending a ripple of laughter through the group. Santana nodded proudly and pointed at the sweet shop with her free hand, her face transforming into a wild grin.
"Charge!"
The mall had never seen so many stampeding feet before.
Each one of the teenagers ran at the store, pushing wildly to be the first to get in, suddenly treating the whole mission like a competition. Mike and Tina ran to the section filled with hard candies, Artie and Puck wheeled their way to the animal shaped sweets. Finn started shoveling chocolate into his bag, and Rachel and Quinn started to pick out the vegan-friendly ones. Sam and Mercedes were already filling their bags with lemon sherbets and orange drops, and Santana, Brittany and Sugar had made their way to the holiday themed sweets, picking out chocolate flavoured Santas and candy canes quickly, but with care for the best ones. Kurt and Blaine hadn't joined them today, deciding that they would rather be helping Rory pick out new outfits rather than rush through candy stores like oversized five year olds (as Kurt put it).
"Santana, is this good?"
"Perfect, Mike, go pay!"
"Hey, Santana, how much chocolate should we get?"
"As much as you can possibly carry, Finn!"
"You know," Brittany mumbled at her as they moved away from the candy canes, suddenly spotting the Cadbury cream eggs Lauren had been so fond of, "I've never seen you so hyped over Christmas before. You're not usually one for this holiday."
"How can you not like Christmas?" Sugar yelled at her, frowning as she clutched her bag to her chest. "It's the best part of the year! Presents and family, the weather and the food and everything about it! It's magical!"
"Yeah well, Christmas was…" Santana trailed off, frowning slightly as she started to fill her hands with sugary tree-shaped gummies, "I used to spend Christmas alone, before Brittany. This year…"
Brittany silenced her with a peck on the cheek, dragging her away from the section.
"Our bags are full, let's pay. We've got enough to feed an army of little Christmas elves, right?"
"Right, Britt…right."
Carols
19th December
"Why are we doing this, Santana?"
"Because last year we actually had fun."
Tina was helping her hand out papers to everyone else in the room, pointing out to them what parts they were to sing. They had all gathered in the choir room before they would walk out to the courtyard and 'serenade the masses' (as Rachel put it) and fill the school with Christmas cheer. Had it been up to her, they would have done it in the streets, at the mall, anywhere but this godforsaken place, but Figgins had ordered them to do it, and here they were.
"OK, so we go to the courtyard, we sing our heart out, we hope we don't get chased away and that the teachers actually keep order this time. Yeah?"
"Yeah."
And so, as a cluster of people, they left the room, moving as one breathing body towards the courtyard, where they set up their positions on the stairs, sitting down comfortably despite the cold weather. Brittany and Santana cuddled up to each other, Santana placing one hand on Brittany's lap, feeling her girlfriend's warmth from her body warm her own cold fingers.
"OK," Puck whispered to them as he unsheathed his guitar, smiling. "And a one, and a two…"
He started to strum softly, smiling to himself as the students around them suddenly turned their head, giving them some of the divided attention.
And then Mercedes started to sing.
"O rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day…"
"To save us all from Satan's power when we have gone astray!" the whole group joined in, their voices lifting up above the gloomy cold of the courtyard, actually attracting more students to look at them.
"O-oh tidings of comfort and joy!" she sang alone again, the rest of the group echoing behind her as she spun her way into the next verse, letting Rachel take over when she was finished, watching her pick the beat up and sing a different tune.
"The first Noel, the angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay.
In fields where they lay
Lay keeping their sheep on a cold winter's night
That was so deep."
"Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the Ki-ing of Israel!" the group once again rang with her, a few stray voices from the courtyard joining in. Santana was sure she saw some football players actually smiling along with them, one of them actually singing too.
"One two three four!" Puck shouted out when Rachel was finished, and Santana jumped up next to him, laughing as he started to dance around her, singing loudly.
"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock!"
"Rock!" the choir behind them shout out, and the rest of the courtyard did too. Santana gave a small titter before singing along with him, dancing along and twirling around him, walking down the stairs and grabbing a hockey player by the shirt, pulling him up to dance with her.
A few Cheerios joined her, jumping onto tables and some of the stairs, shaking their bodies with her as she continued to ramble off lyrics, and she turned to Brittany and signaled to her, asking her silently to join the dance.
Her girlfriend simply got up, jumped the last two stairs down to her side and took her in her arms, dancing with her around the courtyard, dipping her in the final note of the song.
Credit Cards
20th December
Quinn pointed at the necklace. Santana shook her head, frowning deeply in thought.
"OK that is the fifth necklace you've turned down, tenth piece of jewelry in all. Why can't you just decide?"
"Because what I'm getting Brittany isn't going to be as mangy as that!"
Quinn gulped back a lungful of air at her friend's choice of words, gawping at her as she gestured wildly at the necklace. "It's pure gold and costs about two months of pay for a minimum wager!"
"Exactly! Mangy!"
"I will never understand you Lopez people and your non existent money problems."
Santana hid her face from the other girl, walking away from the jewelry shop. "I will never reveal our secrets!"
Quinn hurried after her, her face set into a fierce frown as she followed her once best friend eagerly, muttering about how the perfect gift for Rachel was probably somewhere in that shop. Santana chose to ignore her, instead scanning the shops she passed by with piercing brown eyes.
No.
Nope.
Definitely not.
Ew. No.
Ugh, nope.
Perfect!
"Look, Q!"
Quinn put a hand gently on Santana's forehead, shaking her own head of blonde. "It's a bulletin board, Santana. Which flyer am I looking at?"
Santana didn't point, just strutted over to the board and pulled the poster down, grinning at it. "It's perfect! 'Space for Sale, old dance studio. Call this number for more details'! Q, this is perfect!"
"What are you going to do with it?" Quinn asked, looking over the shorter girl's shoulder at the flyer, running her finger over the digits in the centre, the phone number.
"Repaint it, refurbish it totally, add in stereos and whatever, make it hers. Her own little place to go and dance whenever she wants to."
"And your place to have sex when the house gets too crowded?"
Santana blushed before tapping the 'call' key on her phone. "Sure, why not."
Carrot Cake
21st December
The fourth C of the Lopez Family Christmas was a tradition started by their great-grandmother long ago. It was a recipe handed down from generation to generation and every Christmas, one perfect carrot cake was made by the mothers of the family, aided by the children.
However, this year was not to be a happy occasion.
"I do not want her in my house."
Santana stopped her feet midway over her grandmother's threshold, staring at her in disbelief as the woman closed the door just an inch.
"But Abuela, she's part of the family too!" one of her older brothers, she couldn't tell who, stated, giving her a weak grin.
"You can all come in, but not her. I told her never to come back to my house."
"We won't come in without her!" Carlos stood his ground before her, and she gave him one quick glare before spinning on her heel and out of their sight.
The door slammed, and Santana was left outside with her siblings, wrapped up in her favourite white coat, shivering nonetheless.
"What do we do now?" one of her little sisters, asked, and they all shrugged before turning around and walking down the drive to the family van forlornly. She felt tears prick at the edge of her eyes and threaten to spill, but she tugged them back, clenching her teeth and choking back a broken sob.
She was managing well until her eldest sister gripped her hand and squeezed.
She turned into Cristina's warm body, wrapping her arms around the older girl and crying into her shoulder, letting her tears spill, unashamed.
"Why is Tana crying, Cristina?" she heard little Emmanuel ask as he hugged Santana's leg, trying to comfort her in his seven year old ways. "Isn't Christmas supposed to be about happy times and smileys?"
"Abuela isn't being too nice to Santana lately, Emmy."
She soon felt the rest of her siblings, all seven of them, crowd around her, engulfing her in one large hug, warming up her body and stopping the flow of angry, salty tears. Her eldest brother was murmuring something about 'the perfect way to cheer her up', and soon she was bundled up in the middle seat of the van as they all drove off, out of Lima Heights Adjacent, and straight into one of the most familiar areas of the city.
"Why are we in Crescent Way?" she sniffed from between Demeter and Carla, her two younger sisters, already half-knowing the answer.
"Abuela won't let us cook at her house, we'll cook at Brittany's. She won't turn us down."
And so it was that the Lopez siblings ended up on the Pierce porch, knocking the door down, being greeted by Brittany, and invading her kitchen to cook carrot cake…
While a disgruntled Santana and a worried Brittany sat at the kitchen table, the stronger of the two stroking her girlfriend's hair as she let her cry into her shoulder.
Canopy
22nd December
"Hold steady, Puck!" Will shouted for the fiftieth time at the mohawked boy as he let his grip on the rope loosen just a smidge. He tightened his fists around the rope again and the boys – sans Artie – pulled again, and finally the last piece of the canopy was set up.
"We're done guys!" Mr Schue grinned at the girls, who had taken up camp under an already finished portion of the large structure, sipping at hot chocolate. Brittany gave a small clap and beckoned to the males, handing them all a small paper cup of hot chocolate.
"There's more in those flasks if you want."
"Thanks, Britt," Will smiled at her, holding out his cup to the group and smiling at them. "A toast then, to The New Directions Christmas Party!"
"A toast!"
The whole club took a hearty gulp of the beverage, feeling their insides warm up considerably as they did. The air wasn't too cold – surprisingly, the weather hadn't yet switched from autumn to winter yet, and Rachel was all about blaming global warming – but it was cold enough to make them want to drink as much warm substances as possible. Mike was already saying something about heading towards the Lima Bean, five minutes away. Santana, though, couldn't bring herself to concentrate on his words.
Instead her eyes were cast upwards, towards the white temporary ceiling they had built, smiling at it.
"San, you coming?"
"Nah, go on without me. I'll see you all tomorrow."
The group slowly exited the canopy, stomping towards their cars, and she sat down on one of the blankets they had brought with them for the party on Christmas Eve, settling it down with a ruffle onto the dewy grass. She curled her fingers around the paper cup and blew some offending wisps of steam off the top, smiling to herself as she watched them drift upwards. Soon, she felt a second presence sit beside her, tucking her head under the new person's shoulder and sighing, content.
"Britt?"
"Hmm?"
"I love you. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do, Santana."
"Good…" and with that she drank down the last of the hot chocolate and barreled into her girlfriend, pushing her down onto the blanket and staring at her from above, grinning devilishly down at her.
"Would sex on this blanket be highly inappropriate?"
"We'll catch pneumonia, Santana!"
"Right…" she laughed, opting to reach down for her girlfriend's lips instead of removing her clothes item by item, her hands on each side of Brittany's face, propping her up above her.
"Can we make out though?"
Christmas Prayers
23rd December
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yep."
"OK, then…" the Lopez siblings – and their significant others – were seated in the living room, going through the sixth C of Christmas – Christmas Prayers. As they sat down near the fireplace, each person cuddled up to their partner, Santana watched her eldest brother hand out pieces of paper to each of his siblings.
"You know what to do, guys."
Santana nodded dutifully with the rest of her brothers and sisters and clicked her pen, resting the paper on the coffee table beside her.
"OK so, we need to write down our own official prayers onto this," she heard her sister explain to her boyfriend next to them. It was Matthew's first time doing this, his first Christmas as part of the Lopez family, unlike Brittany who had been doing this tradition with them for years…
"So, Britt, you start first."
"I want a unicorn horn like the one I had that Kurt broke."
Santana choked back laughter and looked her girlfriend in the eyes, smiling softly. "Be serious, Britt."
"OK, but how about you go first?"
She put the pen into her mouth, nibbling lightly at the edge and creasing her forehead in thought. "I don't know…I guess for a good graduation and for us to get into awesome colleges…together." She scribbled it down quickly onto the paper and then handed the pen to Brittany, who wrote quickly and surely what she had been thinking of.
For Santana to be happy again.
"BrittBritt, I am happy…" she lamely whispered, blindly clutching at her hand. "I always have been with you…"
"No, I mean…to be really happy. Like you were before all this stuff started. To be happy being yourself."
"I'm getting there, honey."
"Yeah, well, maybe this…" and she tapped the paper, "will give you the final push you need."
"Everyone ready?" her little brother called out to the room, and they all nodded, some giving worldess grunts as answers. He strode through the living room, taking the paper from each person, and then walked to the fireplace, where a small black pot was hanging from the wall, right above the embers. He carefully put the papers into the cauldron-shaped vessel and walked back to the rest of them, smiling..
"Now the prayers are protected by the fire! One more day to Christmas, guys!"
Christmas Eve
24th December
Finally, the party.
Every member's family was seated under the canopy, sipping at their drinks, indulging in candy, nibbling at the food they had ordered from Santana's uncle's catering business…
And everything was going perfectly.
The Glee kids found themselves all sitting in a circle, on the blankets they had diligently set out, left alone by their families for a few precious minutes. It was eleven fifty, and they were all beginning to buzz with excitement. The tree Finn's mother had brought was laden with presents that the families were going to give to each other there and then, but nobody seemed to care.
Everybody was just reveling in each other's company.
Finn, Blaine and Kurt had taken their seats closest to the tree, commandeering one blanket. Next to them, one a beautifully embroidered one Mike's grandmother had hand knitted, sat the Chang couple, Tina cuddled in Mike's arms, his chin resting comfortably on her shoulder as she sat between his legs. Next to them where Brittany and Santana, both their legs tangled in each other, Brittany's hands playing with Santana's fingers. Next to them, Rachel and Quinn sat side by side, one hand each intertwined, and the other smoothly running up and down Quinn's thighs. The rest of the club sat between Quinn and Finn, completing the circle, a mess of heads of different colours and skins of different tones meshing together in a happy little bubble.
"So, guys, it's almost midnight," Blaine whispered eagerly, grinning around the circle. "Do we, like, do anything when it strikes?"
"Drink to Christmas and open presents, kid," Quinn told him, smiling sweetly at him. Not even an over enthusiastic, puppy like boy could dull her mood today. She had found the perfect gift for Rachel, of course, and tonight was a beautiful night…
"Just to Christmas? Why don't we toast to other things, too?"
Everyone turned their eyes to Tina, and Santana found herself grabbing her glass and holding it up.
"OK then. A toast to Christmas and to Glee club!"
"And to a win at Regionals!" Finn grinned, holding his own glass up.
"To friends and family?" Sam smiled, joining them.
"To lovers and romance…" Kurt agreed, grasping Blaine's hand and holding his own hand up.
"To music and the arts!" Mike laughed, kissing Tina's forehead.
"To being different…" Rachel said, looking into Quinn's eyes and smiling deeply.
"To defying gravity!" Quinn continued, nuzzling their noses together.
"And to being unicorns!" Brittany finished off, bringing her glass to her lips and sipping, and everyone else quickly joined her, smiling contently.
The church bells rang out over the town as midnight struck, and the whole group suddenly lunged up and rushed to the tree, grabbing presents here and there and shoving them at each other. Out of the corner of her eye, Santana saw Rachel and Quinn kiss as they gave each other their presents. She saw Kurt and Blaine hug tightly as they gave each other their own parcels, and she was pretty sure she saw Mike and Tina run to their joined families with gifts under their arms.
"Santana?"
She turned to look at Brittany, smiling, hiding behind her back the piece of paper that confirmed that the dance studio was her girlfriend's.
"Yeah?"
"Merry Christmas," Brittany deadpanned, producing a small package with a red ribbon around it. "I…I hope you'll like it."
Santana grinned and accepted the package, tucking the piece of paper in her hands into her pocket, untying the ribbon. As she did, the box fell apart, leaving a small velvet black box. Frowning, she flicked it open, and inside lay a silver band adorned with a heart.
"If you wear the hear so the tip is facing you," Brittany explained, removing the ring from its prison and setting it on Santana's finger, "it means you're taken, that somebody owns your heart already. I want you to wear it to show the world that you are mine, that I am yours, and that nobody comes between us."
"My gift seems really lame now…" Santana muttered to herself as she moved into Brittany's embrace, shaking the thought away as she kissed her girlfriend soundly.
"Thank you."
"Merry Christmas, Santana."
"Merry Christmas, Brittany."