A few weeks later, Santana and Brittany were sitting at the breakfast table one morning. Brittany was grading some last minute papers and Santana was reading the newspaper. Riley walked into the room and was fully awake as she kissed her mom and Santana on the cheek.
"Good morning, baby girl." Brittany said looking up from the paper she was grading.
"Morning." Riley chirped, as she poured coffee into a coffee cup.
"Why are you so happy this morning?" Santana mumbled behind the Los Angeles Times.
"I don't know, just woke up that way this morning."
"Great...you're just like your mom." Santana mumbled. Which earned her a light kick in the shin from her wife.
"Where's Zach?"
"He got into the shower as I came downstairs." Riley said.
"So, he just got up?"
"No, I think he's been up all night. Writing a paper or something. He looked like hell when he was walking towards the shower."
Santana puts the newspaper down and looks over at Brittany.
"What love?" Brittany says feeling Santana's eyes on her.
"What's the paper supposed to be on?"
"It's an argument paper and they have pick a topic and then write a 6-8 page paper defending each side. It's AP English, baby. It's not as easy as regular English classes."
"When was it assigned?"
"Monday."
"That was two days ago."
"Baby, it's an advanced English course. And I can't treat him any differently, I have to be professional."
Santana sighed and got up to kiss her wife, "I'm sorry. I just get overly protective of him when he pulls all-nighters and stuff. I didn't mean to snap at you, Mi Amor."
"It's okay." Brittany leaned in and kissed Santana.
"I've gotta go to work now." Santana says resting her forehead on Brittany's.
"Okay." Brittany says with one more kiss.
"I'm going to say goodbye to Zach."
"Okay."
Santana walked up to Zach's room and knocked on the door. When Zach answered, he most definitely looked like hell.
"Morning Mom."
"Morning Mijo. I was just coming up to say goodbye."
"Oh, goodbye then." He leaned down and kissed his mom's cheek.
"Are you okay?"
"Ye- yeah. I just had to write a paper for Brittany's class and I had writer's block until about 2:30 this morning. So I didn't sleep. I just downed a 5 hour energy shot thing, so it should be kicking in soon."
"Do you have football practice today?"
"Yeah."
"Be careful Mijo, please."
"I will, Mom. You should get to work now." He kissed his mom's cheek one more time.
"Okay. I love you."
"I love you too."
Santana walked into her studio still thinking about her son. It looked like there was more going on than just suffering from the aftermath of an all-nighter. She shrugged it off as Puck walked up to her handing her a Red Bull saying, "Dylan Bryant is demanding you do his session."
She sighed, "Okay, thanks Puck."
Between her and Puck, they owned one of the biggest recording companies in Los Angeles and it dumbfounded her why one of the biggest hit sensations always went her to do his session. She didn't complain though, it has helped her support her and her son over the last ten years. Now she had two other people to support. Her wife and her stepdaughter. And the last thing she wanted to do is disappoint them.
Santana walked into the studio where Dylan was and she smiled.
"Are you ready to do this Dylan?"
"Yes ma'am. Thank you, I know you probably have better things to be doing right now."
"Satisfying my clients is my top priority here at Rockstar Recording Company." She offered a small smile.
"Okay then, let's get started."
Brittany was waiting to start her third period class. It was the period that she had Zach. He walked in just before the late bell and offered his teacher a small, apologetic smile.
"Good morning class, your argument papers are due today. Please pass them forward."
All the students passed their papers forward and once she had them all she started class. Zach sat in his usual seat in the back of the classroom. He sat and watched as his AP English teacher, his stepmom taught with such a passion in her voice.
The truth was, he lied in his speech at his mom's wedding. He was still livid that his mom was madly in love with his AP English teacher. His was still livid that he sat and listened to her for close to two hours before lunch and then had to go home after practice to her at dinner. He knew that he should've just told his mom the truth, but she was happy. She didn't go all Lima Heights on someone just because they pissed her off. He enjoyed his mom's happiness, he just didn't enjoy it being with one of the teachers that he hated the most.
Class was over and Zach was walking out when Brittany stopped him.
"Zach?"
He took a deep breath before turning back around, "Yes, Ms. Evans?"
"I uh wanted to make sure you were okay, you seemed a little off in class today."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot on my mind."
"O-okay. Everything's good though, right?"
"Remember that invisible line we talked about when you and my mom first started dating?" He whispered.
"The one where I was still your teacher here and not just some person who's in love with your mom? Yeah, I remember."
"I think you're on the verge of crossing it."
"What do you mean? Every teacher asks if their student is okay when they seem off."
"It's whatever Ms. Evans. I'm pretty hungry. So, I'm going to go to lunch now.
"Okay." Brittany said after a deep sigh. "See you after football practice." She whispered.
Zach walked out of the room and walked into the cafeteria as Brittany sat alone in her classroom trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with her stepson.
School was over and Zach was heading to football practice. Wednesday and Thursday football practices were always more intense then Monday and Tuesday's football practices. He was stretching out when his coach was walking over to him.
"Lopez!" He called.
"Yeah, Coach?"
"I know you were planning on going to a junior college to play some ball before going to a university, but I think you may want to reconsider that."
"W-why?"
"Scouts will be at our homecoming game next week."
"Sc-scouts from where?"
"Varying from Stanford, USC, Texas A&M, NYU, and a few others. It's your chance to shine, Lopez. Don't you want to do something great with your life once you leave these small prep school? Something more than starting out at Los Angeles City College? I've seen your grades, you're worth more than that. Tell me that you'll at least take this next week to think about it."
Zach sat there for a minute and let the words of his coach just sink in before saying, "Okay."
"Okay, thank you. I just want to see you do more with your life."
Zach had a small smile on his face, knowing that his coach did care.
Practice on no sleep was brutal for Zach, but he dragged himself into the house where he saw his mom and Brittany making dinner together in the kitchen.
"Hey Mijo. Go shower and dinner should be ready when you're done."
"Okay." He smiles at his mom and doesn't even look at Brittany.
He walked upstairs when Brittany sighs.
"Everything okay, baby?" Santana asked as she wrapped her arms around her wife.
"I think so. Zach has just been acting weird around me ever since the wedding."
"What do you mean?"
"He just sits in the back of my class and doesn't say anything and barely does anything."
"Is he failing?"
"No, he has an A, but it's like he doesn't want to be there."
"It's his senior year, I know I didn't want anything to do with my senior year."
"You also spent a better part of your senior year pregnant with him and breaking up with Matt."
"True. But, I don't know, I mean, he's still doing good in your class, so what's there to worry about?" Santana lightly kissed her wife's cheek. "Come on, let's finish making dinner, have dinner with our kids, and then tonight, I promise to make you forget about everything, and make some pretty hot and sexy love to you."
Brittany moaned, "I think that sounds like a plan."
And with that, the night went exactly as planned. They finished making dinner, they had dinner with their kids, which Zach was quiet through most of, and then Santana led Brittany into their room and they made some pretty hot, sexy love to one another before Brittany fell asleep in Santana's arms.
