a/n: sorry this chapter took me too long! Sorry, I keep saying sorry! Lol. I have neglected my other story even more than I've neglected this one lately, so I'm going to write another chapter for that before I get to work on the chapter for Nationals. I know my last few chapters have followed the show pretty closely, but I do have plans for what's going to happen with this story during the summer, so I will definitely still be updating. It'll be nice to do whatever I want with it and not have the pressure to get something up before I get too behind episode-wise, and the chapters will also be more original! Thanks again for the reviews, you guys are the best!

Since the news of her pregnancy had broken, Santana had done a pretty good job avoiding Coach Sylvester. She was so glad she quit the Cheerios before it all happened, and Sue had still gotten a few jabs in since then, but luckily, not about the pregnancy so far. There was that comment about her boobs being bigger, but no one knew about the baby at the time, so it was just Sue being mean. She was sure her former coach had said stuff behind her back, which was fine, as long as she didn't know about it, but she didn't want to deal with her in person. With her hormones all over the place, she figured she would probably cry, and she certainly didn't want Sue or the rest of the school to see her like that. So, when Finn and Kurt suggested they plan a funeral service for Coach Sylvester's sister, Santana was against the idea. She hated to be a bitch, but she just didn't think she could handle it. Fortunately for Santana, the rest of the group was opposed to the idea at first too, so it didn't make her seem so horrible.

"We're not doing it for Sue, we're doing it for her sister," Kurt explained.

"Jean is just like us guys. I mean, she's been an outsider her whole life. We of all people should celebrate that," Finn added.

Santana was about to say something again, but fortunately she didn't have to. Jesse St. James, who was there as a show choir consultant, whatever the fuck that was, spoke up.

"Can I just say something?" he began. "When someone dies, yes it's a tragedy, but it's also a part of life. And you can't let death put your life on hold. Now, I don't mean to be blunt, but I don't think you should be planning a funeral the same week you should be focusing on a set list for Nationals."

Most of the kids were nodding in agreement with the obnoxious curly haired boy, the three former cheerleaders the most enthusiastically, but Finn was persistent. "Seriously? You're serious?" He asked.

Jesse insisted that he was, rambling on about Vocal Adrenaline and how they were rehearsing non-stop, on IV drips, and how when a member dies they become a prop. Something like that, Santana wasn't listening too carefully, her baby hormones were making her seriously moody and all she could think about was how much she hated his hair. God, he looked like a douchebag. He and that midget were perfect for eachother, she had decided.

"No. Thanks for your input Jesse, but we're helping Sue with the service for her sister. Rachel, you said I need to be more of a leader for this club, well here it goes: I'm making the call, we're doing this," Finn decided, and no one argued. He was right, Santana supposed, they should do this for Jean.

The next day, Mr. Schue and Jesse were holding auditions to find out who was the most talented member of the Glee Club, and therefore perform a solo or duet at Nationals. Naturally, Kurt, Rachel, and Mercedes signed up, but to everyone's surprise, the first name on the list was Santana. Here was a girl who barely ever sang at all last year, and now she wanted to perform at the most important competition of their high school careers. Santana knew she could do it, she may not always be as eager to sing as Rachel, or as good at girly showtunes as Kurt, or as big a diva as Mercedes was, but she knew she was just as good in her own little way and she was ready to prove it. So, she performed Amy Winehouse's "Back To Black" and she nailed it.

"Fantastic, Santana!" Mr. Schue exclaimed while clapping enthusiastically. Santana was pleased, but not at all surprised. She had done a great job, so she looked to Jesse, eager to hear what he had to say.

"Thanks for coming in," he commented, leaving the girl a little miffed.

"Wait, that's all you have to say? You spent the entire performance scribbling notes!" She argued

"Well if you really must know, I was simply writing down that I don't think your perforamance went very deep into the emotional truth of the song," he explained, and Mr. Schue looked over at Jesse's notepad where he had drawn a picture of a cat.

"Oh, is that so? Well, I happen to have some feedback for you!"

"Thanks Santana, that's all we'll need," Mr. Schuester interrupted.

"I'm about to go All Lima Heights!" She added, but Mr. Schue just thanked her again and hurried her off the stage.

Kurt was next, and he also did a great job. Of course, Jesse wasn't a fan, saying that it was a girly song and based on who had covered it before, it was some big shoes to fill. Of course that didn't sit well with Kurt either.

"Jesse St. James totally Jesse St. Sucks!" he exclaimed as he stormed into the choir room. "He said I shouldn't be singing girl songs. I make my living singing girl songs!"

"I think the winner of four show choir championships might be able to give us some valuable insight," Rachel said.

"We know you're in love with him Rachel, but do you have to be so obvious?" Mercedes asked.

"Don't use the fact that Jesse and I once had feelings for each other as an excuse for my inevitable win," the shorter girl replied.

"Correction," Kurt interrupted, "You has feelings for him, he made breakfast on your head."

"Look, Jesse and I both appreciate the integrity of show choir too much to soil the competition. He's just gonna vote for whoever is best," She explained, but was obviously meaning and thinking that she was best.

"That would be me," Santana added confidently, "you guys can fight over whoever comes in second all you want because I kicked that song square in the balls. I'm so gonna win this thing."

"Don't bother warming up, Rachel," Mercedes said getting up from her seat. "I'm about to wrap this thing up like a Christmas present."

Mercedes also performed brilliantly, but not surprisingly, Jesse was unimpressed and called her lazy, but Rachel might have been the best of the day. The other three kids snuck in during her performance, and Kurt was especially impressed. "She may be difficult, but boy can she sing!" He said before standing up and cheering. Santana just rolled her eyes and pulled him down, he was being ridiculous.

"I have to be honest," Jesse said predictably. "That was brilliant. I have nothing but the tip of my hat."

"Garbage! This whole thing is rigged!" Santana said, disgusted by what she thought was Jesse's blatant favoritism. She was still pissed that he wasn't as in love with her own performance.

"Hold on Santana, like I said, I make the final call here," Mr. Schue interjected, trying to smooth everything over.

"Well then make it!" Mercedes demanded, equally as annoyed as Santana was.

"Out of respect to all of you, I'm gonna take a few days to let you know the results. I'll let you know by Friday. Great job everyone."

They had Jean's funeral to focus on now, and although it was a sad situation, it did keep them from bugging Mr. Schuester about it too much. They had decided on a Willy Wonka theme and were going to perform "Pure Imagination". It was beautiful and they wouldn't have needed much practice on it if it weren't for Santana. It took many many times for her to get through it without crying, due to her hormones and the rest of the club was trying not to show their annoyance with her.

"Santana, do you need to sit this out?" Mr. Schuester finally asked after about the tenth time they tried to get through it.

"I really think you should consider it Santana, the emotional stress is probably not good for the baby, and some of us just aren't meant to sing in every genre," Rachel said patronizingly.

"Leave Santana alone!" Quinn demanded as she moved to stand next to the pregnant girl and put a reassuring hand on her back. The girls may have had their differences over the past year or so, they both could be bitches to eachother but they had been friends since middle school and Quinn was the only person there who knew what Santana was going through. She knew all about the fatigue, the nausea, and the hormones that could make you feel like you had some type of serious mental illness. So, she was going to be there for her.

That was what Santana needed to pull herself together. Rachel was annoying, and clearly thought she was better than everyone else. Sure she may have been slightly concerned for her emotional state and possibly the baby's health as well. But what would crying during a song hurt the baby? It was also Rachel's fault she was in this mess. Her and her stupid house party-trainwreck-extravaganza! So, she wasn't going to give Rachel the satisfaction. She could also see Sam struggling with not being able to come over and comfort her and she felt bad about that. So she knew she had to get through it, and think about anything else.

"I'm okay, I'm okay, I can do this," she assured everyone. And she was able to do it. They got through it three times perfectly, and on Thursday during the service, although it was very sad and even Santana had to admit the videos of Jean were very touching, it went off without a hitch. Santana had also managed to avoid Sue all week too. They'd been near each other, of course, but Sue was so grief stricken that she was in no mood to be mean to anyone. Of course, seeing this, it made Santana feel horrible. Sue was mean, but Santana felt bad that she had lost the person she loved most in the world.

"I miss my family," Santana sobbed onto Sam's shoulder that evening on the motel patio. "I'm thankful for yours, and I love you all, but I miss my parents. Sue's speech about her sister really got to me. That thing about the tether. My mom and I used to be so close and now she hasn't spoken to me in weeks and refused to stick up for me to my dad. It just hurts. How am I going to do this without them?"

"Shhhh, we're your family now. This baby and I," he reassured, placing a hand on her now slightly rounded abdomen. "You'll always have us."

"I know, and I appreciate that, I do. It just hurts," she sniffled. "I know I can be a bitch, but they're my parents. This baby isn't even born yet and I can't imagine being so angry that I cut ties with it."

"They'll come around. As soon as the baby is born, they'll be back in the picture, I'm sure. You've seen my baby pictures, and I'm sure you were cute too, our baby is going to be adorable!" he explained.

"I hope it has your mouth," she laughed.

"Oh God, I hope it has yours! hope it has your everything. But if it's a girl, I hope she's not as sexy as you. I don't want her to get pregnant at seventeen," he joked, earning a slap from his girlfriend.

"And she's definitely NOT getting a boob job," he added. "Those things are trouble!"

"Oh whatever, you love them!" She smirked.

"Yes I do," he agreed nodding.

"I hope we're good at this," she said seriously after a few moments.

"We will be. We're young but we love our baby and we're going to do our best. It'll be hard, but we'll be okay. Come on, let's go inside. Quinn is on her way over with dinner," he said, helping her up.

"This doesn't make any sense," Santana said the next day in front of the bulletin board at school.

"Guys, it was a difficult decision but it's for the good of the club," Jesse explained, sounding incredibly insincere and douchey.

"Although this is deeply personal, try not to take it personally," Rachel added.

"Um you guys might want to read what the list says," Kurt said, nodding to the bulletin board.

"What, why?" Rachel asked, clearly confused. She was sure she was going to get the solo. Not only was she best, but Jesse assured her that she would.

"Mr. Schue, thank God you're here to put these trolls out of their misery," Santana exclaimed as their teacher entered the room. "Can you just announce my win so I can get on with teasing the losers?"

"I heard your performance, Santana. This is mine and you know it," Kurt added.

"See Jesse," Mr. Schuester pointed out, "this is the kind of in-fighting and me first attitude that I wanted to avoid."

"What you call fighting, I call motivation. And this is just the beginning. Once we get to Nationals, I'll have them willing to kill each other for that solo."

"No, I changed my mind," Mr. Schue decided. "We're going back to what got us here. Original songs sung by the entire club. We're a team, and we're best when we work as one."

"You're going to lose," Jesse announced.

"Whatever we do, we're going to do together."

"Actually, Santana, you sounded pretty good," Kurt admitted.

"Thanks, you guys were pretty dope too. Even Rachel" she said, casually.

"I wish I could sound like you do, Santana" Rachel gushed, turning to the pregnant girl. "How do you get that raspy-ness?"

"How nice. I spent three months puking my guts out and now that that's over, I have constant heartburn. The only thing I can take for it is TUMS, which is a fucking joke. My esophagus is pretty much raw," she explained, making Rachel sorry she asked.

"Okay then," the shorter girl said cheerily, "let's write some songs!"