A/N: For those of you who have strange supernatural theories about Santana's behaviour: she was NOT abducted by aliens/replaced by a robot/…!

The idea is that she's a real person with real problems, although I guess I'll admit that her emotional state might be just a tad exaggerated. Like, hardly at all.

So NO supernatural theme, just a lot of (possibly over the top) drama.

Also: don't you just LOVE cliffhangers?

7am: wake up, get dressed.

8am: glee, then go to class

lunch at cheerio table

class

glee

house

eat

9pm: work

6am: sleep

Wake up – glee – class – lunch – class – glee – work

Smile in glee and for Quinn.

No eye contact

No touches

Smile for Quinn

As Quinn was staring at her, Santana repeated her mantra in her head, while keeping the smile on her face.

Smile for Quinn, no eye contact.

Quinn was still waiting for a reaction, any kind of reaction from the Latina, but the girl just kept smiling, her eyes fixed on the blonde's forehead.

Don't think, just smile. She doesn't know. Forget everything she said. Get to class.

"That's nice Quinn. I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to get going. Class, you know. Bell's about to ring. We should catch up some other time."

Smile, get to class.

She jumped off the stage, bypassing Quinn, and calmly walked towards the door.

Quinn was too baffled to act at first, but she quickly got out of her stupor as she saw Santana walk to the door. She hurried to step in front of the girl.

"How can you pretend like nothing is wrong! I just told you I know about everything you've been trying to hide from us! I KNOW! Do something about it! Say something!"

Santana just continued smiling, but Quinn could see the corner of her mouth quiver. The darker girl's hands had also found there way to the rubber band again, and were shakily fidgeting.

She doesn't know. She can't know. There's nothing to know. No eye contact, get to class. Smile.

"Nothing is wrong, Q. I'm fine. But I really should get to class now. Teachers always notice it when my hot ass isn't there."

She tried to move past Quinn again, but the blonde quickly thought back to the list, and did the last thing she thought she could do at that moment.

She threw her arms around her old friend's neck rapidly, but not too hard, softly hugging the girl from behind.

Quinn could feel the girl tense up beneath her, her heart-rate speeding.

NO! No touching nicely! Get away! Go to class!

Santana's breath caught. This was not supposed to happen. She knew she was supposed to move. That was her rule, people can't touch you nicely. She had almost forgotten why she had placed that rule upon herself, but now she remembered.

"Santana", Quinn murmured into her ear, "Just let go. I'm here for you. I care for you. I want to help you. Please, just let me help you…"

It had been so long since the Latina had been hugged, she'd forgotten how much she'd needed it. Someone to hold her. To be there for her.

She knew she had to get away, but something inside her was threatening to snap. She wanted so badly to give in to the sensation, to let Quinn take care of her in whatever way possible.

But as her body was swarming with emotions, her rubber band accidentally snapped against her wrist, and she got out of her stupor.

NO! Get to class, get to class, get to CLASS!

Santana quickly grabbed hold of Quinn's arms and threw them off of her, immediately making a beeline for the door. She literally ran out of the auditorium, leaving a shocked Quinn behind.

The blonde let out a deep sigh. That did not go as planned. She wrapped her arms around her own body, hoping to find at least a bit of comfort in the motion, before she talked again.

"You guys can come out now. I know you're there."

She didn't even speak very loudly, but in the silent auditorium, she was as sure they would hear her as she was that they'd be there.

And she was right. Soon enough, she heard the sound of soft footsteps coming from behind the stage, and stepping down from it to join her.

She kept her head down until she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Kurt look at her worriedly.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "That was…"

Blaine appeared next to him and stood in front of her as well. "Heavy…"

Quinn just nodded. She didn't know what to say right now.

Kurt, apparently, did though.

"I thought she would hit you. Get angry or something. Cry, or almost cry at least. But she just kept smiling… I don't understand what's going on in her head."

Quinn looked him in the eyes. "She's just following her manual. Everything she does or says is in there."

Kurt and Blaine nodded. They had noticed it too. The three of them fell silent for a while, each consumed in their own thoughts.

"But", Quinn suddenly spoke up after a couple of minutes of silence, "at least I got a response when I hugged her."

The guys looked up in surprise. They were still on the stage when Santana had started rushing out, and so they didn't really see anything special, except that Santana ran off without saying or doing anything special again.

The blonde just nodded. "She was nervous again, and I saw some cracks in her mask. And when I hugged her, she was starting to let go, but then she apparently completely put her walls up again and left." She paused for a bit. "I know it isn't much, but it's something, and right now I'll take any reaction I can get out of her."

The two guys nodded again. They hadn't seen it, but if Quinn said it was there, they believed her. At least it meant that Santana was still in there somewhere.

"It's odd, though…" Blaine suddenly said, making the other two turn to him questioningly.

"What is? Her reaction? 'Cause I can understand that you expected Snixx to come out as well, sweetie." Kurt said, his eyebrow rising when Blaine shook his head.

"No,… I mean yes, her reaction, but not that one. I meant her reaction to the hug."

Quinn and Kurt looked at each other, the same look of confusion on their faces.

"It's normal, though, isn't it? It was in her notebook. 'No nice touches.'"

The blonde agreed. "Yeah, I hoped she would react to that at least, because I couldn't force her to look me in the eyes."

Blaine just shook his head again. "Sure, her book says to avoid nice touches. But I know for a fact that Brittany still hugs her sometimes, and then Santana just smiles and moves away. Even when her cheerios try and be all team-y with her, she shrugs them off right away, but just keeps her smile on her face. Why did she react so strongly with you, then?"

Quinn looked at him with her eyes wide open, not really sure about what this new bit of information meant for her, but Kurt stood next to Blaine and gave a thoughtful frown.

"You're right, why did she react so strongly to Quinn. Did you say something when you were hugging her?"

The blonde nodded. "Just some things, like that I cared for her and that I'd be there for her."

She mumbled the words, and bashfully kept her head down, which caused Kurt to look at her even more intensely.

"And those words have a special meaning to the two of you, don't they."

Quinn snapped her head up in surprise and looked into Kurt's knowing face, her eyes full of shame, fear, and something like guilt.

"H-how do you… W-what do you mean? She's my oldest friend, of course it has some meaning-"

"Yes, Quinn, but is she just your oldest friend?"

The blonde's eyes went wide at the question, and she almost felt like running away, when a hand on her shoulder calmed her down. Blaine was looking at her intensely.

"Quinn, please. We're your friends. Whatever happened, you can tell us. Just talk to us, okay. We can see that this situation affects you more than us. We see how much you care for her."

Quinn swallowed. "So, you can see… everything?"

She looked up in fear, but Kurt placed his hand on her shoulder as well now, and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Of course not. We just know you care about her. And judging by what happened just now, we know you care for her more than you want to show us." Quinn lowered her head at that, but Kurt tilted it back up. "And that's okay, Q. We don't know what happened between you two, but judging by your reaction, maybe you should talk to us about it. And I know you're probably not ready yet, but now's as good a time as ever."

Blaine nodded as well, and Quinn just knew she had to do it.

"You're right." She choked out. "I should tell you, it – it might help us help San."

Kurt nodded, but he also added "and it might help you too, Q, 'cause by the looks of it, you could use some help as well."

Quinn couldn't exactly disagree with that, so she just nodded quickly and told them to meet her in the choir room during their free period right before glee.

After that, they hurried to class, because their attendance these days wasn't exactly great, and they did not need a detention on top of everything else.

When she finally got to the choir room, Kurt and Blaine were already waiting for her. This time, they had already set up the three chairs so that Quinn knew she was not getting out of this talk.

She took a deep breath and sat down in front of them.

"I suppose there's no escaping now, huh?"

The guys chuckled at the small joke. They could see the blonde was nervous, and they didn't want to discourage her.

"So, tell us… What happened between you and Santana?"

Quinn nodded and took a deep breath as she tried to recollect her thoughts.

"San and I… We were really close in middle school. We didn't really know Brittany yet, and we just hung out all the time. I loved spending time with her. She was my best friend. We could just spend hours together everyday without it ever getting tiresome or boring. We already missed each other if we had to go back home in the evenings."

The guys nodded. They already knew the two had been pretty close. After all, their Unholy Trinity was pretty tight right from the beginning of freshman year.

"When we went to high school, things changed. We got to know Britt during cheer camp before school started, and we immediately went to school as the unbreakable trio. Santana and I still hung out more often without Brittany than with her, though. We liked her, but she didn't completely fit in with us. So we just continued having sleepovers and talking about everything and nothing. I just… really liked those times. The just being with her, without having to worry about cheerios or popularity.

"We knew we were supposed to start dating boys and sleeping around, but I just didn't want to do that. I didn't want Santana to do that, either. I guess, in a way, I didn't want to have to share her. She was my best friend, you know?"

Kurt and Blaine nodded again, but Kurt felt the need to interrupt this time.

"But you felt more for her than just friendship, didn't you?"

Quinn gasped in surprise at the bold question, but after a little while she swallowed and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I just…"

She fell silent again, but Kurt pressed on.

"When did you fall in love with her?"

Again, Quinn was shocked at his question, but she answered it anyway, not daring to look into his eyes.

"In our last year of middle school, right before graduation. I just, suddenly, saw her then, like really saw her. She was still a bit of a tomboy, but she was just so…"

Quinn sighed, but this time she didn't have to finish her sentence. They knew what she meant.

"Did she like you back?"

This time, Quinn was pretty much prepared for the question, although she still refused to look them in the eyes.

"Yeah… I think… Yeah, she did."

Kurt and Blaine looked at each other.

"So, what happened? Why aren't you together anymore?"

This time, Quinn looked up with a sad look in her eyes.

"We've never been together. That's where it all went wrong…"

A/N: I didn't want to end it with a cliffhanger this time, I almost finished it before she could start telling her story, but I figured some people would seriously start hating me for that. So I hope you'll find it enough that I let her tell at least a bit of her story, but it really feels right to stop the chapter here, so I'm just going to do that. But don't worry, I should be writing the new chapter soon.