"Tía!" Santana cried as her eyes finally landed on Callie, making her way from the terminals to the baggage claim conveyor belts. When Callie reached her niece, she dropped everything - the purse, the duffel bag, the suitcase - and enveloped the dark-haired beauty (not too much unlike her aunt at 17) in a huge hug. It'd been far too long since Callie had been to Ohio to see her favorite niece, but regardless, she was there for the weekend and that was all that mattered. "I missed you," Santana said with a small smile as the two pulled apart. "Here, let me help you with that stuff."
"Oh, shut the hell up, my bags would break you. I've got them." Hoisting each bag, one by one, onto one shoulder, Callie wrapped her other arm around Santana's shoulder as they walked through the automatic doors from baggage claim to get to Santana's car. "So, are you going to feed me before we go home or am I being sent straight to the wolves?"
Santana gave a small chuckle and nodded. "Yeah, we can go get something to eat. Mom and Dad are taking to mi abuelito about money or church or something." With the flick of her wrist, the Audi A5 - a gift from her grandfather at her Sweet 16 - purred to life and they were out of the parking structure in no time.
"So, you really quit the Cheerios?" Callie asked as she turned the volume knob to the left and the music progressively got quieter. "Like you're not taking a break, you really did quit?"
"I quit, Tía. Like, really, really quit."
"Why, honey?" Her voice was soft. If there was one thing that Callie knew about Santana, it was that she lived for cheerleading. Santana started cheerleading at about seven years old, after being in gymnastics for two years. She was a competitive cheerleader and the Lopez family relocated to Lima, Ohio so that Santana would have a better shot at competitive cheerleading in high school with renowned, but intense, coach Sue Sylvester.
Santana took a deep breath, kept her eyes on the road and tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "It just… I wasn't really into it anymore. Sue was like a slave driver and it just didn't work out as well as I thought it would for me. That's all." A shrug of her shoulders and Santana prayed that the conversation would end.
"Well, is there another team you'd wanna transfer to? I mean, I don't know about the schools in Seattle, but if you knew of a school where you'd have a better shot at competing, you know that we'd make it happen for you and you also know that I will…" Santana cut Callie off with a fierce look as they stopped at a light.
"Tía, I don't think you're hearing me right. I'm done with cheer. I don't wanna do it, I don't really have an interest in it anymore and it's not where my heart's at." Fact is, Santana could get away with lying to anyone but her aunt. Santana reminded Callie so much of herself at seventeen that it wasn't even something that the two could laugh at. There was not a moment of Santana's childhood that she could ever attempt at lying to her tía without being found out.
"You are such a bad liar, San. It's not even funny." Callie laid her hand on top of Santana's, which was on the gear shift. "Seriously, what's going on? I know you and I know your extreme love for cheerleading did not just vanish after three years with Sue Sylvester."
"Look, can we talk about something else?" Santana snapped and Callie stared at her for a minute. Deep breath. She's not the person you need to be snapping at, Santana. Calm down. "It's just.. It's a lot of things, okay? It's a lot of things that I don't really want to talk about right now. What about you? How are you and the baby?"
"Santana, we are not making this about me. The baby and I are just fine. I'm worried about you, little one." Callie insisted as Santana parked the car in front of a Breadsticks in Dayton. "This isn't like you. First of all, you wouldn't just up and quit the Cheerios without a damn good reason. It took you forever to convince your mom and step dad that you needed to be in Ohio to train with Sue Sylvester. And second of all, it's not like you to not want to explain this to me. I thought we were closer than this, Santana." After a moment of silence, Callie got out of the car and shut the door behind her, leaving Santana in the driver's seat.
"We are closer than this," she whispered to herself before grabbing her purse from the backseat and heading inside the restaurant.
