A/N. Hello! This idea came to me in a dream I had a couple of weeks back. This story will span from Arizona's freshman year to her senior year. Each year will be a separate chapter. Also, this is an AU, so my imagination will go rampant on this one. ENJOY!

FRESHMAN YEAR

Gangly limbs, short stature, nervous expressions. That's how you'd describe your average 15-year-old freshman. Arizona Robbins wasn't an exception to that image. At the age of 15, she still had her braces, needed glasses to not be a hazard to herself and others, and always wore her hair in a ponytail. It was just practical, nothing wrong with it according to her mother.

Today was the day she had been waiting for. Today was the day she would ascend into glorious young-adulthood, or she thought so at least. It was the first day of high school. Gone were the days of never being taken seriously because she was only a middle schooler, maybe people would actually start to listen to her for once. Only time would tell.

She clutched the map of the school in her hands, it would be disastrous for her to get lost on her first day here. Not only was she new to this high school, she was also new to the town. Her father was a marine, a colonel to be exact. This made her, and her brother Tim, army brats, never staying in one place longer than a year and a half. But her father was stationed permanently now. She was good at making friends, but seeing she had to leave them soon, she never made the effort to make any best friends. Unless you counted her brother, of course. He was always there for her, had taught her how to beat up a bully if they decided to start throwing punches around. He, and sometimes her father too, had taught her how to be a good man in a storm. How to stand up for her ideals and how to defend the ones she loved. Everybody always said how good of a quality it was.

Miraculously, she had made it to home room without getting lost along the way. She quickly put the map in her backpack and made her way into the room that was filling with kids her age. She looked around, scanning the room for a place to sit. She spotted a girl with red hair, sitting quietly at a desk near the front row. She made her way over there, having her mind made up.

"Hello, would you mind if I sit here?" Arizona said with a pleasant smile on her face, wringing her hands a bit. She was nervous of being turned down by the first person she had met in this little town.

The redhead looked up surprised for a small moment, but a big smile quickly grew on her face. "Of course, of course. Sit down. I was just a bit surprised you wanted to sit near the front. Normally, kids are piling in the back, determined to establish themselves as the 'cool kids'." She gestured for the blonde to sit down, looking at her with bright eyes. "My name is April Kepner. I've never seen you around before, have I? The majority of this class has been together since middle school."

The blonde's stomach tied itself in knots, how did she make friends with a group that had been together for years? She snapped out of her thoughts when she saw April looking at her with an expectant look, she hadn't answered the question. "Uhm… You haven't seen me around, no. I just moved here because my father is stationed in the next town over, we moved here over the summer."

April moved to respond but the teacher walked into the room asking for silence. "Sit with me at lunch," the redhead whispered quietly. "I'll give you the scoop on everyone in the class." Arizona didn't realise she had just made a friend for life.

The first half of the year passed without much difficulty, except for the worst meltdown Arizona had ever experienced, curtesy of her science teacher and her endless amount of quizzes, and yeah, she also hit a boy in the face. Arizona had grown closer to April, she would say she was a really good friend. She had made some more friends, but they weren't really nice to April, so she didn't hang out with them much. April had told her that she was bullied in middle school by a boy that was now a classmate. The same boy that Arizona had eventually hit.

It was just another unassuming Tuesday. Arizona had quickly run to the bathroom to pee before the bus left, leaving April at the entrance of the school. When she made her way back to her friend, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was the boy that had bullied April, shouting in her face while April was pressed into the wall, nowhere to escape. The boy made an intimidating step forward, but he didn't get any further than that.

"Hey!" Arizona called out, throwing her bag to the side and taking her jacket off along the way. "What do you think you're doing, you big sack of shit?!" She balled up her fist and didn't waver in her approach.

"Leave me be, Robbins" He drawled, without a care in the world. "We wouldn't want you to have a black eye to go with your two blue ones, do we?" He didn't notice the way her body was primed for attack, just waiting for a reason.

"I give you three seconds to get away from her before you have an eye that matches your soul." He just looked at her unimpressed, clearly not thinking she would actually do it. He took another step towards April, reeling back from the sudden pain in his right eye. The blonde had pulled back her fist and with a show of incredible power she had hit the bully in the right side of the face. He was too shocked to do anything but watch as Arizona collecting her things and pull April towards the bus by her elbow.

"You just hit a boy two times your size!" April hissed out, not having processed everything yet.

"That's what a good man in a storm does, April. Protecting friends and family." She didn't say that her fist throbbed like crazy.

She got a week of detention for it. It was so worth it, though.

Winter break wasn't anything special, she just hung out with Tim who had come back home for winter break. He was a senior in college, studying pre-med. He'd wanted to become a surgeon since before Arizona could remember. It was inspiring to see how hard Tim worked for it.

They visited grandparents, went out to do fun stuff. Ice skating, for example. It was a tradition. For the past ten years, the went ice skating and drank hot chocolate when they had tired themselves out.

When they had come back from winter break, there was a new face in their home room. The teacher introduced her as Carina, a new student who had moved from Italy with her mother and brother. She went to sit with a couple of girls in the back, the ones that were mean and thought they were amazing.

It was an interesting sight when Carina threw her drink towards one of those girls a week later during lunch. It seemed she was fed up with their big ego's and bitchy attitude. She came walking towards their table and sat down, grumbling about mean bitches and heads too big to properly fit through the door. When she had calmed down, she properly introduced herself and asked about the rumour that she heard that Arizona had punched a boy in the face. The blonde laughed and began telling the story.

Needless to say, friendship bloomed.

It was a week before winter break that Arizona had a sudden realisation. She was in her bedroom thinking about Carina and the way she had laughed when some stupid boy had slipped during gym trying to impress the girls, ultimately making a fool of himself. "I'm gay." She said it aloud, tasting it on her tongue. It felt right. This wasn't some huge realisation, she had subconsciously known for a long time. So, without any doubt, she made her way to the kitchen where her parents and brother where sitting, discussing parts of Tim's classes.

"I'm gay." She said it again and looked at her parents who were looking at her.

"We know darling," Her mother said with a sweet smile. "You're still the person we raised you to be and we won't love you any less for this. Though, try to be a little subtler when you come out to your grandparents, they're a little more conservative."

A couple of hours after dinner, she was laying in the grass with Tim at her side. They talked about unimportant things for a little while, but eventually Tim grew serious.

"Zona, dad and I taught you how to be a good man in a storm. We taught you how to defend yourself and your loved ones. I need you to promise me something Zona." He looked at her with watering eyes. "I need you to be yourself no matter what. I need you to come out for the incredible person you are." She hugged him fiercely and nodded her head against his chest.

The remaining months were all about the upcoming dance. Arizona didn't get the excitement. It was just a meeting of a bunch of sweating teenagers in overly decorated gymnasium. She shrugged when her friends asked about it and said she wasn't going. Tim was coming up for his birthday. They were going camping for the weekend and they were leaving as soon as the final bell let out on Friday. Her friends complained a bit while Arizona finished her math homework, trying to convince her to come to the dance. It stopped after one look though.

When the year was finally over, Arizona, April and Carina went to celebrate with burgers and milkshakes, at an 80's diner on the outskirts of town. Arizona was happy with her life. She had amazing parents and an even more amazing brother, she had the greatest friends she could wish for, and the boys in her class were now too scared to do anything against them, all fearing a dislocated jaw from the blonde's right hook. Yep, life was pretty great for Arizona.

A/N. Hope you enjoyed, leave a review with your thoughts and ideas as to who I should include in the story from Grey's. I'm not sure on that yet. Bye!