Of course, Adriana didn't tell Santana about her discussion with Brittany. That, she felt, was definitely something that Santana should find out for herself. It took the rest of the following day, all the way until Brittany followed Adriana into the choir room after school, for this to dawn on her twin.
It was a pretty hilarious scene, really, in Adriana's opinion. She had followed along just behind her sister and Brittany as Santana talked on, mocking some girl in their class that she apparently thought was uncool and annoying, as Brittany nodded along but seemed to be paying much more attention to twirling a strand of Santana's hair through her fingers. Adriana didn't fail to notice that her sister had started to stammer and lose track of her words almost as soon as Brittany did this, a pleased smile fighting to take over her judgmental expression. She had followed just behind, clearing her throat as a reminder to Brittany, and Brittany had casually stepped apart from Santana, giving her a kiss goodbye on the cheek as she stepped in place with Adriana.
"See you later, Sanny."
"See you later?" Santana had echoed, her eyebrows knitting in confusion as she looked between her sister and Brittany. "What are you talking about?"
"Glee club," Brittany had informed her, her voice casual, as though this were truly unremarkable news. "I joined with Adriana. Talk to you after rehearsal."
It had taken much of Adriana's willpower to keep from bursting into laughter at her sister's outraged expression. Unable to suppress her smile, she had walked towards the choir room in step with Brittany, marking this in her mind as step one of her plan to help change her sister's life.
As she had thought, Brittany was a talented and welcome addition, although the fact that she was a cheerleader had met with more than a little suspicion from the others. But with Adriana vouching for her, and Rachel dramatically backing up Adriana's choice as well, she had been suspected and mostly welcomed, and the rehearsal had passed pleasantly. Brittany had even winked at her as they ended for the afternoon, not even taking on a more negative expression when Rachel came up behind them and linked her arm through Adriana's, chattering at full speed and volume about the success of their most recently practiced number.
Of course, it was different once she got home, with Santana waiting for her. Adriana really hadn't expected any less than fury, and that was what she got.
"How could you do this to me?" Santana had demanded the moment Adriana was within her sight, not even bothering to keep her voice down so their abuela wouldn't hear. "You got Brittany to join Glee club, why would you do this to me?!"
"I didn't make Brittany join, she wanted to," Adriana said calmly, even as she fought not to giggle at her sister's stricken, almost strangled expression. "I don't see what it has to do with you either. It's Brittany, not you."
"What do you mean, you don't see what it has to do with me?!" Santana had almost shouted, even more indignant at this response as she flung her hands out furiously, launching into a response that was half Spanish and half English, a lapse that often occurred when she was particularly upset. "It's Brittany!"
"Right, and your name is Santana," Adriana reminded her, shrugging, knowing and taking some pleasure in how she was only frustrating her sister further.
"Brittany is a cheerleader and so am I! What will it look like for one of the cheerleaders to be in Glee?! They'll start thinking that I'm in Glee too because I hang out with her! They'll think that we're just as dorky as you guys! It's bad enough that my twin is in Glee, but now my-"
She stopped abruptly, not finishing her sentence, even as Adriana picked up on this immediately.
"Your what? What is Brittany to you, anyway?"
"My…my best friend," Santana muttered, even as her skin flushed darkly and she briefly bit her lower lip. "She's my best friend. It makes me look bad if my best friend is lumped in with you geeks."
"I thought I was your best friend," Adriana feigned hurt, even as she continued to fight back her smile. "Wow, I'm not your best friend anymore AND you're embarrassed by me?"
"Shut up," Santana snapped, obviously in no mood for guilt or apologies. "I know you did this just to get to me, Adriana. Why are you so caught up in this stupid Glee thing?"
"First off, Brittany joined because she wanted to, I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with a desire to piss you off. And I didn't talk her into anything, because I'm pretty sure if she really didn't want to, she wouldn't have. And anyway, Brittany can sing, she can dance, she's pretty, we're lucky to get her. Besides, San, she likes it. She thinks it's fun, and you would too if you gave it a chance. Are you really that embarrassed, or are you just mad that she's going to have fun without you now and have less time to be with you, because you're too scared of what everyone else thinks to join?"
Adriana added the last part as a sudden inkling of this hit her. She had a feeling she had hit the mark from the way Santana jerked her face out of her view, shaking her head tightly, so she went on.
"Brittany isn't afraid of what other people think, and she wants to do it. Don't you want her to have fun, San? Isn't it okay if she isn't with you all the time, since she isn't your girlfriend or anything?"
"It doesn't look like a hell of a lot of fun when people throw ice cold drinks on your FUN little Glee mates," Santana shot back, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her head, as though sure she had conceded a point. "You think I want that to happen to Britt?"
"I think you're scared it will happen to you," Adriana said quietly, looking her sister in the eye.
She knew she had hit another mark when Santana flinched, biting her lower lip again and looking away. When she spoke again, her voice was quieter, more vulnerable than she had let show before.
"I worked so hard to get where I'm at in this school, Adriana. I don't want this stupid club to ruin that for me."
Adriana regarded her, feeling for her sister, but nevertheless knowing, even so, that it didn't matter. If Santana would only put herself outside of her fears, she could be happier. Adriana just knew it. After all, wasn't she?
"Let it go, Sanny," she said quietly, reaching out and twining her fingers with her sister's. "Let her have her fun." She paused, allowing a teasing smirk to curve her lips, before she added, "Unless you think she'll like another girl better? Don't worry, Rachel is taken."
Santana glared at her, jerking her hand away and giving her a little shove, and Adriana didn't stop her own giggles that time. Even as her sister shook her head, muttering under her breath that she still couldn't believe Adriana would even want to look at that Elf Queen dork, Adriana could see that Santana too was fighting a small smile.
88
The next couple of days, for Adriana, passed almost flawlessly, exactly as she might have hoped they would. She attended classes, ate lunch with Rachel and her friends, went to Glee after school, which Brittany came to and fully participated with each time. On one occasion she was certain she saw her sister lurking outside the choir room door, her brow furrowed in what was either concentration or the beginnings of a scowl. She didn't have enough time to determine this for sure, because as soon as Adriana tried to catch her eye and smile in what she thought was an encouraging manner, Santana had turned her head fast and continued down the hall. Adriana hadn't let it bother her. In fact, she found it pretty encouraging. Between Brittany's presence in Glee, her casual references to it and its activities to Santana, and the fact that she was now spending a few hours a day apart from her, Santana was pretty sure her curiosity was only going to get more intense as time went by. And her sister, when wanting to know something, never could resist doing what it took to find it out.
She had spent another afternoon after Glee practice at Rachel's house, and after she had gotten through the long period of time where Rachel would present her with the detailed notes she had taken on Adriana's performance during Glee rehearsals, they would spend time together that inevitably would become kissing and shy touching, as they had before. Adriana could feel herself slowly opening up to her, losing the shyness and fear that had always been a part of her since she could remember, even with- or maybe especially with- her time with Amanda. Never before, outside of being with Santana, had she felt that she could relax and let herself feel safe, and for the first time, she was beginning to.
Despite all of Santana's vows to the contrary, Adriana was actually enjoying her time in school. She felt that she was beginning to find her place, that she was wanted, valued- even happy.
But then came the day that set the changes into motion.
88
Adriana didn't understand what she was seeing at first. It was difficult to even immediately recognize Rachel, with her features as obscured as they were by the thick red liquid dripping from her hair and over her face, soaking into her favorite reindeer sweater and staining her white tights. It was the reindeer sweater that helped Adriana identify her, and her first horrified thought was that she was seeing her girlfriend covered in blood. When she froze, flashes of her own blood covered face from her own beating coming to mind, she found herself unable to move forward to help Rachel in her horror, until she heard the girl hold up a hand of reassurance, addressing her.
"Really, Adriana, it's okay, no need to look so distressed, this is simply part of what occurs when you occupy my place in McKinley's popularity rankings system. It certainly isn't worth getting so upset over, although I do admit that I wish they would have chosen a different color such as yellow or green that perhaps wouldn't have stained my tights quite as badly. Oh well, I am of course prepared with an extra outfit in my locker, and I am well versed by now in how to wash myself off in the bathroom sinks."
It took Adriana another few moments to realize that Rachel was not in fact covered with blood, but rather a cherry flavored Slushee. Her momentary relief with this was quickly replaced with indignation as she came forward and took hold of her arm, heedless of the dripping icy liquid staining her as well.
"But Rachel, that's terrible! I know they do these things here, but to you…and so much? Rachel, why don't you tell someone? Why don't you report them?"
Rachel shrugged her shoulders, resigned and factual in her response.
"Because it has been tried before, Adriana, and their response is simple and plausible. They claim that they tripped, or their arm was knocked by a bypasser, or that they set it on a desk or a table and someone's elbow jogged it. There are many inventive ways to claim that someone was doused with an ice cold and brightly colored beverage other than their intentional choice, and adults would rather believe what reason gives them the least amount of work to act upon."
"But that isn't fair," Adriana said, her voice gathering heat and volume as she put an arm around Rachel, wanting to half support her as she lead her to the bathroom to help her clean herself up. "That isn't fair at all. So they can just do this whenever they want and never get in trouble?"
"Basically, yes," Rachel said calmly, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm used to it, Adriana, there is no point in getting so upset. I think they enjoy it more then. But I would really appreciate it if you would help me clean up? It gets very sticky in my hair and the back of my neck, it is difficult to really get clean there without assistance."
"Of course," Adriana said immediately, tightening her arm around Rachel. "Whatever you need."
As they entered the bathroom, Adriana set to work with Rachel instructing her, helping her use the rough paper towels to wipe off her face, then wetting the paper towels with soap and water to remove sticky residue. She helped Rachel bend her head over the sink, running her hands through her thick, now tangled hair in an effort to help ease the slushee out of it. She repeatedly took the school's slimy cheap soap into her hands and worked Rachel's hair into a lather, taking her time and using as much tenderness as she could, even massaging her scalp. Adriana heard Rachel sigh with some bliss at this attention, her eyes closed, and her shoulders seemed to relax over the sink.
"No one ever helps me like this," Rachel said after a few moments, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "Well, Kurt or Tina, if they were slushied too, but otherwise no. It would just be asking for them to get it with me."
"I would never walk past you like that and not help you," Adriana told her, her own voice hushed as well. "I don't care if they want to do the same to me. I always will help you, Rachel. Always."
She rubbed Rachel's back with the paper towel beneath her shirt, partly to help remove the residue of the slushee, but partly in a comforting massage. She heard Rachel sigh, leaning into her hand, and Adriana carefully rubbed her hair as dry as possible with the paper towels before helping her to stand upright again. She watched as Rachel changed into the clothes she had retrieved from her locker, her breath catching, and although she was flushing at the briefly exposed parts of Rachel's body, she couldn't stop her smile, nor could she resist blurting out her thoughts once Rachel was fully dressed.
"You're so pretty."
Rachel's smile lit up her face, and she reached out to touch Adriana's cheek gently, looking into her eyes.
"So are you."
Adriana covered Rachel's hand with hers, looking back at her. She found her hand coming forward shyly, touching the other girl's hip, and then Rachel was stepping closer to her as well, her wet clothes forgotten on the floor. Adriana found herself leaning forward, her lips meeting Rachel's as the other girl twined her fingers in her hair, and she closed her eyes, letting herself give in to the moment between them.
It was interrupted all too soon though by the banging of the bathroom door opening and closing, by the faint gasp, then mocking laughter of another girl present. Adriana's eyes flew open, and her head jerked back, taking in the sight of Quinn Fabray, one of the fellow cheerleaders on Santana's squad and in her group of friends, looking at them with cutting eyes.
"Can't say I'm surprised that Man Hands is lurking like the dark troll she is in the closet, but the sister of Lopez? Tut, tut, how embarrassing. Unless of course she's the same way?"
Adriana's face flushed dark with horror, and her eyes widened as she immediately began to plead with Quinn. How would Santana be able to take it if Quinn spread a rumor like that?
"Quinn, please, no, that isn't true about Santana. Please, can't you just-"
But the girl was already backing out of the bathroom without even using the facilities, chuckling to herself. As Rachel looked at Adriana with a furrowed brow, Adriana couldn't even fake a smile.