A/N Wow, thank you guys so much for all the positive favorites and follows! I was not expecting any of this. Thanks also to my lovely first reviewers! I've been wanting to start a story but have never had enough drive, but now that I see that people are actually interested I feel so much more motivated! :) I'm at a really busy period of my life right now so updates may be slow, forgive me! Please note that the story takes place over a number of different time periods, so look out so that you won't get confused! The story is set in an AU universe where Santana and Sam went to school together. This chapter is sort of a background bit to help you guys understand Sam and Santana's relationship dynamics, and reach a little bit into Santana's mind. If you have any questions about the story/updates, you can reach me at .com. That's all for now. Happy reading!
2 months earlier, August 16th.
There are certain things that need to be known about Santana Lopez.
One: Santana was born and raised in Lima, and moved to LA shortly after graduating her Senior year.
Two: In high school, Santana was an honor roll student, Co-Captain of the Cheerios (the school cheerleading team) and Junior year Prom Queen.
Three: Santana has never been in love. She doesn't believe in it.
Santana Lopez pulled up to the Lima Bean in Lima, Ohio, sighing at the quaint building and the cramped parking lot. The coffee shop was the city's pride and joy, but to Santana's Los Angeles mindset it appeared scruffy and outdated. This dead end town was about as far as you could get from her ultra chic living quarters in Santa Monica, LA.
She supposed she would have to get used to it - after all, work was work, even if the conditions in which she had to stay were less than satisfactory. When she'd signed onto the Brecker - Brooklyn case, Santana had been prepared for traveling. She had pictured herself being sent off to glamourous places: New York, or maybe Boston. Even Phoenix, with it's overwhelming population of geriatrics, would have at least been a change of scenery. Instead, the promising case led her straight back to Lima, the town she'd struggled through most of her high school years to escape from.
Locking her car, Santana slid her dark sunglasses down her face and sauntered towards the building. Yeah, it was October, but the sky was bright and she sure as hell didn't want to get wrinkles from having to stare into the sun for extended periods of time. When she arrived at the door, she paused slightly, letting the situation sink in. Being back in the town she had grown up in felt eerie, as though she was back to being her embarrassing 17 year old self - a past she'd thought she'd left behind long ago.
Her parents, ever guilty for the lack of attention they had shown their daughter during her upbringing, had offered her a living space and her old bedroom. Santana had politely refused. She wasn't going to regress that far back. Her parents were agreeable in small doses, and by small doses Santana meant a short recap of her week on the phone to her mother, and the occasional casual dinner. More than this caused the dark haired girl to feel constricted and slightly claustrophobic - she preferred to retreat to her small rented apartment and continue working on her case rather than mend relationships that had long gone rotten.
The only reason she was in public at all was her loyalty to Sam. Damn Sam.
Sam Evans had been one of Santana's closest friends in her years at McKinley High School. The two had bonded unexpectedly. When Sam had first arrived at school, Santana had mocked and taunted his admittedly enormous lips, hoping to get a rise out of the blond Justin Bieber copy. Although Santana had been popular for the standards of McKinley, she had never been the type of girl to be followed by a posse of adoring fangirl slaves. As part of the Cheerios, Santana could hold conversation with her fellow cheerleaders, but she regarded them as shallow and inferior - nowhere near the standards she expected her surrounding company to uphold.
Anyway, one day Santana was late leaving school because of a Cheerios routine that had gone on for longer than usual. The rest of her plastic teammates had already left the building; she was alone. Trying to ease off the sense that she was on an abandoned alien planet, Santana stuck the earbuds of her iPhone into her ears and pressed Shuffle. Taylor Swift's country voice twanged into definition, singing the chords of Santana's favourite guilty pleasure tune: Our Song. Without consciously noticing, Santana began singing along as she packed up her things, enjoying the freedom of being able to relax and be herself, not the Queen Bee she had convinced the rest of the school she was. As the song increased in countrified intensity, Santana began shaking her hips and pretending to play an imaginary guitar in time to the music, not noticing the approaching footsteps.
"And when I got home, 'fore I said Ame-een-" her voice stopped mid warble as she heard the sound of muffled laughter. Spinning around sharply, Santana noticed Sam crouched down behind some lockers, fist stuffed into his mouth in an attempt to stop the raucous giggles that were erupting from his body. Santana's face coloured quickly.
"Look, Mr. Professional Dick Lick Lips, if you even think of mentioning this to anyone..."
Her words were cut off once again by the blonde, who'd by now managed to regain some composure and had stood up next to her. "Don't worry, Corn Princess," Sam assured the silently raging Latina sweetly, "Your secret's safe with me." He gave her a quick wink and began walking away, softly humming the song under his breath.
Santana was flustered. She was used to people trying to find out incriminating information about her to use to destroy her, and her incessant teasing of Sam probably hadn't endeared her to him. He had the potential to completely ruin her Bad Bitch persona! Worried, Santana jogged after him into the hallway. Overtaking him, she crossed her arms and blocked his path. "What's your deal, Sam Evans?" Santana demanded.
The expression on the blond's face was hard to read. He looked at Santana thoughtfully - maybe even a little pityingly. Pityingly? Santana didn't need anyone's pity! She was the queen of the school, the most popular girl in Lima, the type of person others aspired to be... Her internal monologue of rage was halted by Sam's next words. "I don't have any deal, Country Bumpkin. I was just finishing up after football practice. I'm kinda out of shape and those Doritos I ate yesterday totally didn't help." He studied her expression, wondering if he should go on. "And, I guess I was sorta curious. I mean, someone who puts up the kind of show you do every day has gotta let it out somehow." He flashed her a smirk, "I guess I've figured it out now, yokel. Anyway, I better get going. Sìltsan ne tse'a nga." With a wave of his hand, Sam walked out, leaving Santana speechless and slightly confused. How could he have known she put on a show? Was she that obvious? How dare he call her those embarrassing countrified nicknames? And what the hell had been his last sentence?
The progression to friendship after that had been slow but steady. Santana, intrigued by Sam's strange mannerisms and apparent sincerity, had approached him the next day and asked if he could explain himself to her. He, in turn, proffered the information that he had used Na'vi, language of the Avatar people from the film that Santana had secretly adored. The two began hanging out during break times and after school. It was refreshing for Santana - for the first time, she could be around someone who knew her for something else than the ice-cold Cheerio's captain. Over time, the two became almost inseperable. As always happens when a boy and a girl become friends, rumours flew around McKinley that Sam and Santana were getting it on, but nothing could have been further from the truth. The two enjoyed each other in all innocence, usually participating in heated video game battles or watching artsy foreign films that no one else liked and trying to copy the accents. Santana had lost the need to insult his lips, though Sam always retained the fondness of calling her his pet Dixie Chick. When she left Lima, Sam was the only one she kept in touch with.
Shaking her head, Santana fondly recalled the memories. She had by now reached the door to the cafe, and her hand rested over the handle, allowing her a few seconds to regain some composure and slap on an enthusiastic smile. This was her best friend she was going to meet, after all!
At a bright corner booth at the far end of the Lima Bean, Sam sat waiting with his beautiful blonde companion. The two were waiting for Santana and sharing a hot chocolate with cream, because that was how she liked it. They were excited! After all, this would be her first time meeting Santana, and Sam had some exciting news.
Neither of them had any ideas of the events that would follow Santana's stepping into the picturesque little cafe. If they had, maybe Santana would have heeded her first thought when she'd seen the sign for Lima in front of her and Sam would have agreed: she should never have come back home.