A/N- Thank you for all the support so far, I'm really excited about this story so it's great to hear that other people are too! Keep those great reviews coming!

"When this is over...we will got to the rainforest, or a beach as white as bone. We will eat grapes from the vine, we will swim with sea turtles, we will walk miles on cobblestone streets. We will laugh and talk and confess. We will."

- Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes

(7 years earlier. Summer 2007)

Two young girls lay in the bright grass of the front yard that belonged to the house at the end of the road. They both wore short denim shorts with brightly colored tank tops.

"Can you believe school starts in less than a week?" The taller girl asks, lazily twirling a blade of grass in her fingers.

The other girl throws an arm across her eyes and groans, "Urgh, don't remind me."

"At least it's fifth grade. It could be worse."

The smaller girl sent her a glare, "Don't try to make school a positive thing, Q. It's hell with flourecent lighting."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "You're such a drama queen."

The brunette girl sat up indignantly, "This coming from the one who spent all of the summer obsessing over how Rachel Berry only wears one-piece swimsuits and how Finn Hudson has a habit of huffing glue!"

Quinn was just gearing up for a long winded reply about how she most definitely did not care how Rachel chose to dress at the neighborhood pool and how Finn really did huff glue, when Santana interrupted her thoughts.

"Speak of the devil." She said, nodding across the street.

The blonde shot up to a sitting position and snapped a hand up to fix her flyaway hair. But let it drop when she saw it was Finn walking down the sidewalk across the road with Dave Karofsky. Finn had a basketball which he bounced uncoordinatedly as the boys walked towards the rec center.

"Shame both their heads are as empty as that ball." Santana said before flopping back down.

Quinn watched them for a moment, paying attention to the placid smile on Dave's face, even at the age of twelve he is tall for his age. She was always able to connect to the gentle giant since the beginning of elementary school. Finding an inexplicable kinship in his quiet nature. They both knew who the right crowd was, and they were both a part of the right crowd, but for both of them- it didn't go much deeper than that.

She shook that thought from her head and laid back down, secretly excited to be going back to school.

(October 17, 2014. 7:36 AM)

Santana giggled, like actually giggled. Not that she would ever admit that to anyone of course, because Santana Lopez does not giggle. But 'Sanny' does.

She was giggling because Coach Sylvester had sent her and Brittany out to her car to grab some cones for practice and now they were wasting time fooling around in the parking lot.

"I almost caught that bunny, I was so close Sanny!" Brittany smiled.

Santana was about to confirm the blonde's assertion when an explosion from the back of the school caught her attention.

"What was that, San?"

"Probably just a boiler exploding. It happens in old schools all the time." Santana lied. She had no clue what that noise was, but she saw no sense in scaring Brittany unless it was necessary.

"Oh, do you think it hurt the bunnies that live in the basement?"

Santana didn't even raise her eyebrow at the slightly absurd question, "I don't think it did Britt."

The Latina gathered up the practice cones and was just about to prepare to go back into the building when she saw the first people streaming out of it. They were disheveled and red faced, moving at a sprint they didn't stop when they hit the parking lot. As the doors opened to let them out, Santana could hear the utter confusion inside, screams and shouts all mixed together into an overbearing wall of noise flooding at them just like the wall of students streaming from every possible exit. Santana dropped the cones, grabbed Brittany and thrust the car keys into the frightened blonde's grasp.

"Get in the car and lock the doors. Don't get out or open them unless it's me or Quinn alright?"

"Sanny, what's going on?" Brittany's blue eyes were wide with concern.

"Just stay in the car, alright? I have to help Q." She shrugged out of her Cheerios jacket and handed it to the blonde, "Here, if you get cold or someone tries to get into the car, hide under this ok?"

Brittany understood Santana's tone more than her words and found herself nodding while moving to do as instructed.

Once Santana was sure she was safely locked in the car, she began battling the sea of students. Occasionally she would pass students with blood spattered on their clothes or cuts on their arms and legs.

By this time, police cars were beginning to spill into the parking lot. They had to slow down as the students continued sprinting away from the school. Eventually most of them gave up and parked their cars haphazardly in the lot, jumping out and running to assist.

One policeman caught up to where Santana was shoving through students towards the school, he grabbed one boy by the arm, "Who is it?! Who's shooting?!"

Santana's stomach dropped at that word, of course it was a shooting, but she had until now been able to retain a little hope.

"I don't know." The boy was terrified and wanted nothing more than to escape the grasp of the cop.

"Where is the shooter?"

When the boy didn't reply, the cop let him go and surged forward with Santana at his side.

They made it to the front doors of the school before the officer stopped another student, a young girl Santana recognized from Chemistry class last year, "Where's the shooter?"

The girl didn't answer, her eyes were hysterical and her hands were streaked with blood, "They're dead. They're all dead!"

For a moment the officer paused, "Who's dead?"

"The Cheerios."

Santana froze, the girl couldn't be right. The entire squad couldn't be dead, it was impossible. The girl tried to push away and rejoin the crowd but Santana stopped her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I saw them all in the gym, sprawled on the ground."

With this affirmation, the brunette was sure she was going to be sick. Her blood ran cold and she didn't register the crowd parting around her like a rock in a stream. Her best friend was dead and she wasn't because she had been screwing around.

Still in disbelief and needing to see for herself, Santana pushed forward, throwing herself through the doors and shoved her way forward towards the gyms.

A/N- Also thank you Eyghon, you were indeed right that I used the incorrect word in the previous chapter and I went back and fixed it. Thanks so much for pointing that out!:)