A/N Hey lovely readers. I love the response I've been getting regarding this story, I just wanted to answer a couple questions before I keep going.
It took me a while to come to the conclusion, but they are the same grade. Dani is almost a year older, Santana with a late birthday. It is fairly AU, so just keep that in mind. One reviewer commented on my choice to call them "women" instead of "girls" in the flashback, but keeping in mind the two girls this is mostly about, I think they would consider themselves women, especially considering both of their self-esteems (or perceived self-esteems). But, it depends on the situation and what sounds right to me.
Next, I have quite a few head canons for Dantana, especially Dani. The biggest one you'll see in this chapter is that she is bilingual. She also speaks Spanish, as does Santana. This plays out a lot in my head with them. However, my Spanish abilities are next to nothing, aided by poor translations from Google translate. From this point on, anything you see in italics are conversations that happen in Spanish.
Also, I can't really give a set time that I'll update, because I'm a fulltime student and work fulltime.
Like always, feel free to message me here or tumblr with any questions, and please leave your thoughts in the reviews! (And if people ever thing it needs to be changed to M, someone let me know!)
Sophomore Year...
"Alls I'm saying is that putting us skinny bitches at the bottom of the pyramid isn't only cruel, it's stupid. No one can lift Misty without throwing their back out," Santana said for the fifth time, rephrasing each attempt to try to get the disapproving pout off of Brittany's lips.
"Well, San, maybe if you'd stop insulting the captains where they can hear you, they'll stop punishing all three of us," Quinn said as she inspected her flawless nails yet again, obviously bored.
"Tell me you don't agree," she dared with a smirk. "They can't lead with shit. We're junior captains! Can't they just listen to us? We'd rule that squad so much better than them. There's isn't a girl that's not afraid of the two of us, and they've been using Britt's choreo since she was like twelve," Santana tried to defend.
"Exactly, San," Quinn groaned, rolling her eyes. "Junior captains. As sophomores. The squad is ours in May, for two years, if you stop pissing all of them off. So shut your mouth for two more months. Please," she said with yet another eye roll. This conversation was a repeat of five before, each time Santana smoothly angering the senior captains.
"So, do you guys want to come over to my house?" Brittany asked, trying to end the conversation. "My mom made those special cookies with glitter in them again."
Santana was opening her mouth to respond, a general ringtone cutting off the response. She held once finger up as she swiped a finger over her phone. "Hola, this is Santana…" her tone changed immediately, the sound of cheerful, innocent girl shocking the other two women. The only people to ever call her were her family, everyone else always resorting to text messages. Santana assumed it was because everyone who texted her were afraid to call in the middle of a Snixx-induced rampage. The pattern caused her to never check the caller ID.
"How'd you know I speak Spanish? Creeper…" Dani giggled into the receiver.
"Oh… Dani… Hey…" Santana said, feeling her cheeks heat up as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry about that." She glanced at Quinn, whose eyebrows were creeping up her forehead at the stuttered apology. Brittany simply hummed and smiled as she walked; the smile she flashed at Santana was all-too-knowing. Santana would be annoyed by Brittany's uncanny ability to read people if she wasn't so grateful to have someone simply understand her.
"Don't worry about it. I grew up learning both," she said causally. A few muffled yells in Spanish could be heard on her side of the conversation before they were drowned out again. "So you said I shouldn't contact you the day before with an implied threat, so I figured day of would be better." Her voice was even, bored almost, without a hint of fear.
"Me too, actually," she said. "Uh… The… Spanish thing," she said, chuckling softly as she turned away from the prying eyes of her best friends. "What do you want to meet up?" she asked, shaking her head to regain her focus.
A small hum of thought could be heard on Dani's end. "Well, my parents are kind of strict. I can't meet Sundays or school nights after eight. I know that's…incredibly restricting…but there's not much I can do about it." Her parents' rules made it fairly easy to alienate people; something she depended on to keep her distance with how often they moved, but the company her dad was with gave him a five year contract. While she didn't care much about Santana's opinion of her, she was already convinced that glee club would be the reason she made it to graduation – if she did. Much to her dismay, Santana and the Cheerio Bimbos seemed to be a part of the club, regardless of their reasoning. Dani figured that it was a feeble attempt at balancing out a one-point-zilch grade point average for their college applications.
"Oh yeah. That kind of blows…" Santana agreed, waving off the looks of confusion from Quinn and Brittany. "I just finished Cheerios practice. Why don't you give me an hour or so and just come over tonight?" she offered, pursing her lips.
"Oh," Dani responded, slightly shocked. "Yeah, that's totally cool. I'll see you in an hour, Santana."
"Yeah, see you in an hour," she said before hanging up her phone again. She simply shrugged at Quinn and Brittany, but the barely there flush on her cheeks was more than enough evidence for the latter. Brittany smiled softly, her walk getting perkier as Santana dropped the phone back into her bag. "Sorry, B, looks like I'm not coming tonight. I gotsta go. Later Bitch, Bye Britt-Britt," she said with a small wave before sliding into her car and driving off.
Santana let out a long sigh as she wiped the steam off of the mirror. She took a long, hot shower, having opted to stay in the gym for an extra twenty minutes as she did after every practice. She never showered with the girls. She claimed that the school water hurt her skin and made her hair frizz, but every day she'd get the same look from Brittany – the knowing, self-aware look that made Santana's skin crawl every other time. At least she stopped pressing the subject after Santana almost started crying last month. She leaned against the sink, sighing lowly. She couldn't stand to be in the showers every day with the girls on the squad, awkwardly over-aware of every glance and each body. There were days that she wished she could go back to her ignorance – before she realized her sexuality, when she could date and hook up with whatever guy she chose without a splash of guilt or the thought of women in her mind. In Santana's case, ignorance truly was bliss.
She started taking care of her hair, brushing it slowly and drying it straight. She didn't like this time; when she was alone and left to her thoughts. At cheer and glee practice, she had plenty of other things to think about. In school, she could focus on her work (which she actually did) or how to get attention off of the fact that she hadn't had a boyfriend in a while. Berry usually did the trick for the latter. Now, in silence, Santana could only think. She had over two years left before she could leave Lima, and that was exactly what she was going to do. Leave and never look back.
She sat on her bed, staring at the cheerios uniform that hung on the back of her door. The uniform offered unbelievable protection for her. Being one of Sue's few favorites, no one in the school dared to touch her. Between Quinn, Santana, and Brittany, Coach Sylvester was well aware that her team was set for the next two years. Quinn had the natural leadership, Santana the talent for cheering and having the entire team and school afraid of her, and Brittany's choreography made the team unstoppable. It wasn't her life, though. She enjoyed it, but her dreams extended more than just being an NFL girl.
"You're late," Santana said as she opened the door to Dani, who simply scoffed and walked past her. "By all means, come in."
"I'm five minutes late because I needed to find your place, and of course you were going to let me in because, as I believe you said, 'you wants the stix…'" Dani said, trying to imitate the other woman.
"Once you've raised your cool level off of the bottom of Berry's barrel, you'll understand the need for the Stix. Now come on before your curfew hits and you need to run home to Mommy and Daddy," Santana said with a small smirk, walking upstairs to her room.
"Clever. Making fun of my curfew. Never heard that before. And Kurt said you were actually creative with your insults," she laughed, smirking.
"Whatever," she said, shaking her head. "Why don't you just tell me what songs you thought of so I can shoot them down and we do something that I come up with," Santana said, closing her bedroom door at Dani put her guitar down on her bed, opening the lid and flashing a rainbow flag sticker at Santana for a moment, causing her to blush and look away.
"Well, I've never heard you sing before. And, if you want to win, why don't you do something different? Maybe something good for the both of us?" Dani suggested as she checked the tuning on her guitar.
"Fine. I'll bite. What did you have in mind?" Santana said as she fell back onto the bed.
"What about Tegan and-"
"No."
"Uh-huh-"
"Again, no."
"Holy shit. First of all, I wasn't even going to suggest Uh Huh Her. That'd be pretty crazy to pull off in a week. But Tegan and Sara? They're my favorite artists," Dani said as she rolled her eyes. "But, the real question is, how did you know I'd suggest them?"
"The Pride sticker in your case and the rainbow picks kind of gave you away. Plus, my gaydar is flawless. If those weren't enough, you stare at my chest every three minutes, and your nails are neatly kept, but short."
"Oh, so because I'm a lesbian, I obviously have to like bands that have lesbians in them. Real nice."
Santana stared at her for a moment, her lips pursed when the front door opened and closed. "Mija? You home?" Santana's mom's voice echoed upstairs.
"Si, mami! Bedroom!" Santana answered back, shrugging at Dani for a moment. Not thirty seconds later her bedroom door opened.
"Hola, mija, how was your… Oh, I didn't realize you had a friend here. Hi, I'm Maribel, Santana's mother," she said.
"Dani, it's nice to meet you."
"You too, dear. She's cute, Santana," she said, turning back to her daughter with a wide grin.
"Mami!" Santana said, trying to stop her.
"What? You can't deny it."
"I think she's trying to stop you because I speak Spanish," Dani interrupted, her glance switching between a hidden smirk at Santana and an innocent smile at Maribel.
"Oh… I'll start dinner. I hope you're staying, Dani," Maribel said, disappearing behind the door and making a point to leave it ajar.
Dani looked at Santana, her smirk fully grown. "Okay. Let me get this straight, because you're obviously not. From what Kurt said, me and him are the only two out kids are school. But… you're out to your parents? So your parents know, but no one else?" she asked, laughing.
Santana rolled her eyes. "Brittany does? Kind of…" she muttered. "Just keep your mouth shut."
"So that's why you thought of Tegan and Sara and Uh Huh Her right away. Tell me, do you have the box set of The L Word, too?"
"Shut the fuck up! Not everyone doesn't have a reputation to worry out."
Dani bit her lip and sighed, shaking her head. "Okay, so what's the story with Pouty?" she asked, changing the topic.
"Pouty?"
"Cute brunette. Dresses like a kindergartener. Plaid skirt," Dani said with a small smirk. "Looked pissed while I auditioned. I'm writing that one off as jealousy."
"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just called Berry cute," Santana scoffed, shaking her head.
"Okay, Closet Case, pretend you've never noticed."
"Shut up."
"Anyway…." Dani said, dragging it out. "What was her problem?"
"You don't suck," Santana said with a shrug.
"So what would piss her off more? It seems like fun," she explained with a shrug.
"Last week, after 'Cedes and I did a song from RENT, she went on a ten minute rant about how only she can do Broadway justice, and Lady Hummel if he picks the right song," she offered up.
Dani laughed, putting her guitar down. "I know a song we can do. And we might actually pull it off, PomPom. Loathing from Wicked could be fun, especially if we change a few things. Now onto more important matters. You calling Kurt 'Lady,'" she said, staring at her pointedly.
"Oh, de-stress your breasts. It's not a gay thing. I'm many things, but a hypocrite isn't one. You'll learn this soon, but every time we have a guys versus girls thing, Kurt always joins our team. And I'm fairly convinced he's going to experiment with drag in college, and I don't want him to settle for some less-than-clever pun on penises and tits or something," she said with a shrug, her arms moving to rest behind her head.
"So… you're helping him?" Dani asked for clarification, then just laughing and shaking her head. "Wow." She bit her lip before reaching over, her hand resting on Santana's knee. "Look, if you ever need someone to talk to about… everything. I'm here. Everyone needs someone," she offered.
Santana scoffed, shaking her hand off. "Just because you find out I'm a lesbian, it doesn't mean we're best friends all of a sudden. And it sure as hell doesn't mean that we're going to date. I don't care if you're the only gay chick in school. I don't date guitarists."
Dani rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, PomPom, I don't date cheerleaders."
"Oh please, everyone wants to date a cheerleader."
"Everyone wants to date a guitarist," Dani shot back.
"Been there, done that," Santana scoffed with a shrug.
"Oh yeah? Have you 'been there, done that' with your two blondes?" Dani asked, biting her lip and wiggling her eyebrows.
Santana reached over and swatted her arm. "And that's exactly why I don't date guitarists. You and Puck will be great friends."
Dani laughed, pulling out her laptop and looking for her Wicked soundtrack. "Now that we're on the same page that we aren't going to date each other – even if I am curious as to why you brought that up – let's focus on the song, shall we?"