LbN: Pezberry Week day 1: Rewriting/fixing canon. Enjoy!

It was only the second week of school and Santana already wanted to be out. Senioritis was a bitch. The only good thing to happen since returning to this godforsaken place was her odd new friendship with Berry. She probably wouldn't be back in Glee if it weren't for Ber – Rachel.

"Hey."

Santana turned from her locker to see the younger girl walking over to her. "Hey, Rachel. Find out about the whole Glee Senior Project song?"

"Yes. We get an entire year to prepare a song that symbolizes our time at McKinley."

"I'll pay you a solid hundred to sing We Don't Care Anymore by Story of the Year."

Rachel laughed. "I was thinking more Don't Want You Back, Millenium-era Backstreet."

"Also solid," Santana said, grinning.

Rachel leaned against her locker, still smiling. "We blew it you know? Spending the last three years hating each other."

"It was mostly me hating you. Sorry," she added sheepishly.

"We still have a year to fix it. Here," she said, handing Santana a small square.

"A picture of you?"

"For your locker. You have Quinn, and Brittany. I want in on the friend thing."

"You got it," Santana said, and put the picture up next to Quinn.

"A fabulous start to our friendship revision year," Rachel said with a nod. "I'm going to hug you now – I'll be quick."

Santana couldn't help laughing as she was caught in the python grip of her new/old friend. "Hey, do you want to come over Friday?" she asked as Rachel pulled away. She couldn't really say why she'd had the idea all of a sudden, but something about making their friendship "locker official" made Santana want to get to know Rachel better.

"Like, to your house?" Rachel said, looking bewildered.

Santana smiled. Knowing the tiny diva, she'd had a "Steps Toward Friendship: Santana Lopez" chart stashed away somewhere, and was caught off guard with Santana skipping straight to "Hang Out". "Yeah. We can order dinner and work on glee stuff. Sound good?"

Rachel beamed. "Sounds great! What time?"

"Umm…around seven?"

"I'll be there!"

"You're saying I can't do it?"

"No, I'm saying you shouldn't do it on this timeline," Rachel said, reaching for the popcorn. "Think about it – it's not realistic for everyone to be star right out of high school. Not unless you sell your soul to Walt Disney's ghost. All I'm saying is, if you want to go to New York, go to school. Do you even know what you want to be famous for?"

Santana thought about that for a moment, frowning. "Now that you put it like that, I guess not."

"Well what if you're destined to cure cancer or create a new sustainable source of energy? And we never know because you want to spend the bloom of your youth chasing after any record deal or TV slot you can get."

"Touche," Santana conceded. "But I don't know what I want to do period."

"That's what college is for."

"Oh god, I know that look. We're about to spend the rest of the night looking up schools for me, aren't we?"

Rachel grinned a slightly worrying sort of grin and nodded. "You need a top choice and backups. I only want NYADA, but I know how competitive it is and my dads insisted on my looking elsewhere just in case. Where's your laptop?"

"I can't do it."

"Rachel –"

"Santana, please!"

Santana looked into the wide, terrified, pleading brown eyes and sighed. "Okay, give it here."

Rachel handed her the envelope and buried her face in Santana's shoulder. They'd gotten halfway through Cats Don't Dance before Rachel had finally told her she'd received a letter from NYADA.

Santana, arms circling Rachel, opened the letter. "Dear Miss Rachel Berry. Congratulations, we are pleased to welcome you to the Class of –"

That was as far as Santana got before Rachel let out a scream of joy.

"Hey San!"

"Hey Rach," Santana said, sidling up to Rachel's locker. "Look what came for me today." She held up an envelope.

Rachel gasped. "Oh my god! Did you get in?" she all but screeched.

"CUNY class of 2016!"

Rachel tackled her into a hug. "I knew you'd get in! Oh my god, we're going to New York! We could live together! Or at least nearby. Oh my goodness, I have to start researching apartments. Have you told Quinn yet? Of course you have. Should we –"

Santana put a finger to her lips. "Shhhh…. We've got plenty of time for the details. Let's go tell your fiancé the friendly giant that I'll be keeping you comp – Rachel? What's wrong?"

Rachel's head had sunk low at the mention of Finn. "The wedding's off."

"Wait, what?"

"Indefinitely. Possibly forever. Finn doesn't think my heart's really in it, and he doesn't want to hold me back or pressure me."

Santana gave her a one-armed hug. "I'm sorry. It'll be okay."

Rachel nodded. "I'm sure it will be."

The bus-ride back from Chicago was silent, nearly everyone asleep. Santana took out her earphones when she felt someone sit down next to her.

"Hey," Finn said, smiling.

"Howdy, Finndestructible. What's up?"

"I…um…was wondering…how Rachel's doing?"

"She understands, Finn," Santana said gently. "Plus, I think today's win buoyed her spirits somewhat."

Finn grinned and glanced back to where Rachel was sleeping, cuddling their trophy. "Yeah, I get the feeling. I'm glad you'll be with her – you know, in New York."

Santana didn't exactly know how to respond, so she settled on, "Thanks."

Finn shrugged. He gave her a gentle shoulder nudge and went back to his seat.

Santana smiled and put her earphones back in.

"This is it," Rachel said, shouldering her bag.

"Day one of our Big Kid lives," Santana added.

"Right – game faces on, let's do this!"

Santana grinned and rolled their apartment door back. She followed Rachel out into the city, ready to take on the world.