Sorry again. I feel like i appologize every time i post a new chapter. it's just that my prom is tomorrow and there has been so much going on lately that i haven't had any time.

But anyway, the chapter...

In my short 17 years, i have only attended one pride parade in my life, and so this is based on what i have experienced myself.

enjoy :)

Two weeks flew by quickly. In the Berry household, Hiram and Leroy were preparing everything for their trip down to Cleveland. The plan was for them all to stay in a hotel for two nights before driving back to Lima. Leroy, being the avid party planner, had made a long list of the things they needed to bring and pack. He stood in the living room, shuffling through one of the two suitcases they were bringing, taking inventory. Hiram and Rachel walked down the stairs. The three of them all wore simple, everyday clothing. But inside their suitcases were outfits that could only ever be worn to a pride parade. The colors, the glitter, feather boas and rainbow socks. It was all far too extravagant for any other situation.

Blaine and Kurt drove to Quinn's house. They had agreed to take Quinn with them and the three of them would drive together to Rachel's. They rang Quinn's doorbell. After a short moment, they could hear the thumping of footsteps coming towards the door. A rather flustered Quinn greeted them.

"I'm having second thoughts," she said, eyes wild with panic. Kurt and Blaine walked inside and she shut the door behind them. "I mean, I want to go. I want to go for Rachel. She wants me there. And I want to go to prove to Santana that I'm not a total pussy who is afraid of coming out. And I want to go for the experience. But, its… it's such a huge step. You know?"

Kurt smiled and pulled her into a tight hug. "Quinn, you're worried now, but I promise that you'd regret it if you didn't go. You'd be mad at yourself for letting an opportunity like this pass you by."

Quinn pulled out of his embrace and smirked. "You're not wrong."

"Are you all packed and ready?" Blaine asked.

"Yeah," Quinn sighed, running a hand through her hair. "My bag is up in my room."

"I'll get it," he offered, and headed towards the stairs.

"Last door on the right," she called after him.

Santana groaned and collapsed backwards onto her bed, falling into the plush, black velvet sheets. "Is it too late to change my mind?"

Brittany stood up from where she was packing her and Santana's bags with what Brittany thought was an adequate amount of feathers, glitter, and rainbow colored clothing. "Sanny," she chided, "you said you would go. And I really want to go. And Rachel and Quinn really want you to go too. And it would make me really happy if you came."

Santana flipped over so that she was laying on her stomach, resting her chin in her hands as she watched Brittany dance around the room, filling up the bags. "I know. And I want to go. It's just… Brit. I'm going to a pride parade."

Brittany stopped. She walked over to Santana's bed and pulled the brunette up on her knees so that the two were at eye level. She took Santana's hands in her own and said, "No. We are going to a pride parade. Together."

Santana smiled and placed a tender kiss on Brittany's lips. At that very moment, Santana's brother, Andrés, walked into the room. He instantly put a hand over his eyes. "Uhh.. Tana?" he asked.

Santana blushed and got up and walked over to him. Brittany fell back onto the bed and tried to stifle some giggles.

"You know," Andrés began, taking his hand away from his eyes, "You two should really consider shutting the door when you're going to be doing… that. I mean. I know that it's a little late to invest in soundproof walls, but…"

Santana groaned and Brittany laughed out loud. Andrés was 12. That was 6th grade. He knew how these things worked, and, after hearing Santana and Brittany on more than one occasion, he had deduced that there was something going on. He asked Santana about it once. Santana was surprised at her own words when she told her brother she was a lesbian. But, Santana and Andrés had always been really close. She was like a mother to him.

"What did you come up here to tell me?" she asked.

"Ms. Cortez is downstairs. She's here to pick me up, but wanted to talk to you a bit first, and to wish you a fun trip."

Santana smiled and looked over at Brittany. "You finish packing and meet me downstairs. We'll leave as soon as you're ready."

Rachel basically bounced up and down when she heard the doorbell ring. She quickly ran over and opened the door, exposing a rather surprised Blaine, Kurt and Quinn. Rachel ushered them all inside, smiling as always.

Hiram appeared from the kitchen and smiled at his new guests. "Hello," he greeted. "You guys all excited for our trip?"

"Oh yes," Kurt said, clasping his hands together. "I am just giddy with anticipation."

Blaine smiled at his side. "Yes, we are all so happy that you and Mr. Berry have invited us to accompany you."

"Please, call me Hiram. And he's Leroy, not Mr. Berry," Hiram laughed. "But really, it is our pleasure to bring you all with us. We have two more guests waiting, correct?"

Rachel was about to answer when the door opened and Santana walked right in, holding both her and Brittany's bags. Brittany walked in after her, holding a stuffed penguin tightly against her chest.

"Speak of the devil," Kurt mumbled. Quinn tried to hide her laugh.

Rachel cleared her throat. "Dad. This is Santana. The Santana that I told you about. And this is her girlfriend, Brittany."

Santana's stomach did a flip as she heard Rachel introduce Brittany as her girlfriend. She nervously glanced around the room as she put the bags down as if to gauge people's reactions, but everyone seemed to be smiling. Hiram walked forward and extended his hand. "It really is a pleasure to finally meet you, Santana," he said. Santana took his hand. "I have heard so much about you," he said.

Santana plastered on a smile. She had promised Brittany that she would try to be nice. "The pleasure is mine, Sir," she said. She even added a little curtsey to the end.

Leroy appeared from the living room, holding three bags in his hands and smiled. "My my," he exclaimed. "What I very well-mannered lady we have on our hands here."

That was all it took. Quinn, Kurt, Blaine and Rachel all began to laugh. Even Brittany giggled just a little bit. Santana smiled sheepishly. "Shut up," she chuckled. She turned to Brittany. "I was trying to be nice. Was that too fake?"

Kurt and Quinn answered "Yes," in unison.

"Well," Leroy said, "We should probably start heading out. We rented a large van so that we could all fit in one car. Is that okay with everyone?"

Everyone nodded their heads and excitedly hurried out the door. Leroy and Hiram took the front two seats. Blaine and Kurt took the middle two bucket seats, and Rachel, Quinn, Brittany and Santana all squeezed together into the very back row. All of their bags were safely secured to the top of the van, giving everyone a little more room.

"It's a good fucking thing we're all skinny," Santana said, "Because I do not think we would be able to fit four fat asses in this seat."

Rachel's face immediately grew serious and she glanced up, meeting Leroy's gaze in the rearview mirror as the van started pulling out of the driveway. "Santana," she whispered. "Please, could you try to keep the vulgarities to a minimum around my fathers? I understand that it is simply your vernacular, and that it may be difficult for you to exclude those choice words from your daily speech, but my fathers don't really approve of such profanities."

Santana furrowed her eyebrows. "Couldn't you have just said, 'Santana, don't curse?' It would have been way easier than throwing all those SAT words at my head."

Rachel huffed and leaned back into her seat, resting her head against Quinn's shoulder. It was going to be a long car ride.

Santana wasn't expecting the car ride to be so loud. Normally she would have been content with spending the entire time whispering to Brittany and ignoring Rachel and everyone else in the car, but these people are basically unigorable. Everyone was talking and having one giant conversation that stretched across the length of the car. The talking only stopped when certain songs came on the radio, at which point all talking with stop and everyone would start singing along as either Hiram or Leroy would turn up the volume.

Santana wasn't expecting to find herself smiling so much around these people, but their smiles and giddy spirits were contagious.

They drove up to their hotel and all piled out in a never ending line of people in a manner similar to a clown car. Everyone grabbed their respective bags, except for Santana who insisted on carrying Brittany's, and made their way up to the large suit the Berrys had rented.

The suit was extravagant. It consisted of one main living/dining/cooking area that seemed to be entirely adorned in beautiful jewel tones and plush fabrics. Sparkling chandeliers hung from the ceiling, matching the glittering drapes and luminescent appliances. From that main room stemmed four bedrooms, each with its own private bathroom. Everyone quickly claimed rooms and settled in.

It wasn't until the next morning that festivities began. The room was filled with the hustle of people getting ready in colorful, sparkling outfits while Leroy stood in the kitchen whistling and cooking everyone breakfast. The entire suite was drowning in the pleasant aroma of pancakes and coffee.

Brittany hurried out of her bedroom. The rainbow feathers on her black pleated skirt flurried as she skipped over to the window and looked out. "I see people!" she squealed. "A lot of people!"

Santana walked out of the room after her, pulling a glittery black tank top over her head, and made her way over to Brittany. "Wow," she exclaimed, looking at the sea of bodies outside. From their hotel, it was four streets over that the actual event was taking place. But, because the Berry's took a room on the 24th floor, everything could be seen outside the window. "There's got to be thousands of people out there," she breathed.

Quinn walked up behind the two girls and handed a steaming cup of coffee to Santana, knowing how the brunette basically mainlines caffeine. Quinn went for a simpler look with a pair of white shorts, a pale yellow blouse, and a wide array of colorful beads around her neck. Brittany spent half the night braiding colorful ribbons into Quinn's hair, insisting that the other blonde needed more colors or she was going to stand out by being the only one not going all out.

"You ready for this San?" Quinn asked, locking eyes with the brunette. For a moment, Quinn thought she registered something similar to anxiety taint Santana's expression. But then, a calm composure washed over her tanned face as she smirked at Quinn.

"Wouldn't the better question be, are you ready, Q?"

Quinn exhaled with a shaky chuckle. "Well, that's a good question."

Santana took a sip of her coffee and lifted an eyebrow. "You know," she started, "it's not too late to back out."

Quinn glanced back behind her towards the kitchen where Rachel and Kurt were adjusting Blaine's glittery rainbow bowtie. She looked back at Santana and smiled, "yeah it is."

Santana nodded knowingly and took Brittany by the hand and they walked into the kitchen to eat breakfast.

Breakfast, however, came and went very quickly. Everyone was so anxious to get outside that food was nearly being shoveled into people's mouths. In under five minutes, plates were cleared.

"Okay," Leroy stated as Hiram washed dishes in the hotel's sink. "These here are the rules. I am not going to stand here and tell you not to talk to strangers, because that's exactly what I want you to do. However, no taking candy from strangers. No getting into white vans with questionable drivers. Never ever leave your buddy, and please. Do not be late to our little check ins. The first is in two and a half hours in front of McCarele's Pizzeria. Do we all understand ourselves?"

A group of six giddy, smiling teenagers gave dizzying head nods and add rushed out the door and headed towards the excitement located just three streets over.

Quinn and Rachel held hands as they followed the music to where the real festivities began. Both girls felt their hearts beating like a pulsating drum in their ears, but for different reasons entirely. Rachel was filled with giddy anticipation. The pride parade was an event she looked forward to every year since she was a little girl, and now she got to share this experience with her girlfriend.

Her girlfriend, however, still felt like a nervous wreck. The closer they got to the noise, the thicker were the crowds of people that they found themselves weaving through. As they made their way towards the event, Quinn's eyes were scanning the area around her, suddenly completely conscious of the small hand enclosed between her fingers. She felt as though there were eyes on her, but when she looked around, no one seemed to be paying any attention to the two teenage girls holding hands.

"Come on," Rachel grinned, giving Quinn's sweating hand a reassuring squeeze. "Let's go watch the dancers. There's this one guy, Martina, who is absolutely amazing. I only wish I could dance in heels as well as he can."

Santana and Brittany walked hand in hand down the street, smiling gleefully the entire time. Brittany loved it. She loved the colors. She loved the glitter. She loved the happy faces and the happy music and the addicting atmosphere.

Santana was scared shitless, but she loved the happy smile on Brittany's face.

"Sanny!" Brittany suddenly squealed, letting go of Santana's hand to clap her own in excitement. "They have henna tattoos! Wanna get matching tats?"

Santana chuckled and linked her arm through Brittany's. The two girls made it over to the tattoo stand and flipped through the large booklet of design ideas.

"What do you wanna get Sanny?" Brittany asked, admiring one that was an outline of two interlacing stars.

"Your choice."

Brittany flipped the page and excitedly pointed her finger, making a choice. "We need to get these, Sanny!" Brittany exclaimed.

Santana looked past Brittany's finger at her selection and started laughing. "It's perfect Britt." She called over one of the men who worked at the tattoo stand. "Can we each get a dolphin?" she asked with a grin."

Quinn slowly found her anxiety melting away, but it'd be a stretch to say that she was entirely carefree. She still had the occasional panic moment when a wave of realization washed over her that she was at a gay pride parade.

Her.

Ms. Quinn Fabray.

If only her mother could see her now.

Quinn found herself smiling as a couple of boys, maybe only a year or two older then she and Rachel, walked past them in matching glittery tutus. "Is this really happening?" Quinn mused out loud.

Rachel chuckled at Quinn's comment. "You having fun?"

"I just… I can't believe there are so many gay people in Ohio. I mean, this isn't New York. This is Ohio."

Rachel smiled and looked at Quinn. "There are gay people in every city all over the world. Even Ohio."

"I know," Quinn sighed. "But this…. This is like surreal."

Rachel smiled. As an older female couple passed by, Rachel stopped them. "Excuse me," she said, reaching into her purse to take out her camera. "Would you please take a picture of us? It's my girlfriend's first time."

The tall redhead smiled and took Rachel's camera. "Smile," she said, holding up the camera. Both girls looked her way, smiling. At the last moment, Rachel impulsively leaned in, placing a feather-light kiss on Quinn's cheek just as the camera flashed.

Brittany giggled as a man wearing rainbow tie-dyed skinny jeans handed her and Santana strings of rainbow beads. "This place is amazing," she said.

"I'm glad you're having fun," Santana chuckled, watching a group of leather-clad lesbians sit down at a table at a nearby restaurant.

"Aren't you having fun, too?" Brittany asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Of course I'm having fun, Brit Brit," Santana said. "I'm here with you. And this place is amazing."

"But…" Brittany started, knowing very well that Santana wasn't being completely honest.

Santana sighed. "Don't you feel a little… out of place?"

"Why should we? You're gay and I'm bi. We're dating. We fit right in."

"Yeah… but, I don't know. This is all really…. You know what I'm trying to say?"

Brittany furrowed her eyebrows and turned to fully face Santana. "I think so," Brittany said honestly. "You're just scared."

"I'm not scared," Santana said defensively, holding out a hand as if to prove a point.

Brittany slowly nodded like she wasn't buying it. "Riiigghhhtt… I forgot. Tana doesn't get scared. Tana just gets nervous."

Santana rolled her eyes like a champ, but it didn't affect Brittany at all. If there was anything Brit knew about her girlfriend is that anger and bitchy comebacks are her coping mechanism for whenever she feels vulnerable.

"Want some cotton candy?" Brittany asked with a smile. "I'm sure some of your favorite snack will make you feel less… nervous."

Santana smiled. "Britt. Cotton candy is your favorite."

"I know. But it would make me smile. And you like it when I smile."

Santana couldn't help it. She giggled. "I like your train of thought. Okay. Let's go get some cotton candy."

Santana felt her phone vibrate. "Sorry Britt," she said, reading the screen. "That was the reminder I set. Looks like cotton candy is going to have to wait. We gotta go meet up with everyone in front of McCareles."

Quinn and Rachel were finishing their lemonades and talking with Rachel's dads when both Santana and Brittany and Kurt and Blaine arrived.

"Right on time," Hiram smiled.

"You having fun?" asked Leroy.

"Tons," answered Blaine.

"Yeah, Mr. Berry. Thanks so much for letting us crash with you guys," Santana said honestly. "This is quite an experience."

"Well," Hiram said. "The actual parade part of it is going to be starting soon. You guys up for marching in it with us?"

Rachel turned and looked at Quinn. "You don't have to. I don't want you to feel obligated."

Brittany turned towards Santana with silently pleading eyes.

"We'd love to," Kurt answered for him and Blaine.

In a short moment, Santana looked past Brittany's head and locked eyes with Quinn.

So many words can be said with a simple expression. Eyes show more emotion and depth than could ever be achieved through spoken word. Quinn saw the unspoken promise Santana was making with her. She would do it if Quinn would. The two of them would cross that bridge together.

"Okay," Quinn said with a shaky voice. "I'll march with you Rach." Rachel jumped and gave Quinn and tight hug.

"Same here, Britt," Santana said with a smile. "If you want to, that is."

"Of course!" Brittany sand, taking both of Santana's hands in hers. "Under one condition, of course."

Santana frowned. "Which is…?"

"You hold my hand the entire time."

"Deal," she laughed.

Within the hour, all eight of them were lined up with a huge crowd of people getting ready to walk the parade together. The music began and slowly the entire mass of bodies moved forward. Quinn watched everyone around her. Couples were on all sides of her. People dressed head to toe in rainbows. Guys wearing fairy wings on their backs. Two women holding hands with a young boy who was more likely than not their son.

There was something about being so close to these people, walking in a uniform group that made Quinn feel like she was meant to be there. There was a part of her that was feeling like she was actually a part of this group of people. This community.

She was, though. She and her girlfriend.

And her girlfriend's two fathers.

And her girlfriend's best friend and his boyfriend.

And her own two best friends to marched together in front of them, hand in hand, matching silver bracelets twinkling in the sunlight.

Santana kept a tight grip on Brittany's hand. She would never admit that she was self-conscious right now. She would never admit that there was a part of her felt naked and watched. But her eyes kept focusing off to the sides were a group of hundreds of people watched their equally as large group march through the streets.

A large pink sign off to the right caught her attention. She looked that way and focused on the words.

"I love my lesbian daughter."

Santana found her feet pulling her in that direction. With her girlfriend's hand in hers, they wove their way through the crowd of people. She could hear Brittany behind her asking where she was going, but Santana's eyes were fixed on the woman. She appeared to be here alone. She couldn't have been much older than Santana's mother. As she noticed Santana and Brittany approaching her, something warm lit up in her eyes.

Without much explanation at all, Santana let go of Brittany's hand and leaned in to the woman. Instantly, the woman opened her arms and enveloped Santana's thin frame into a caring embrace.

"Thank you," Santana mumbled. She pulled away and saw the woman with tears in her eyes.

"No," she said, smiling as Santana once again found comfort in Brittany's hand. "Thank you for being here. Now go have fun."

Santana smiled and she and Brittany walked back into the crowd, trying to catch up to the rest of their friends.

The eight of them didn't make it back to their hotel room until long past two in the morning. It felt like the festivities were never going to stop. Even as they turned their backs and led their aching feet in the direction of their beds, the party was still going.

The moment feet touched the plush carpeting of their room, shoes and clothes were coming off. Santana and Brittany had both stripped down to bras and underwear before they even made it through the doorway to their room. Rachel and Blaine went into their respective rooms, changed into pajamas and found themselves smiling as they fell into the warm softness of their beds. Kurt went to go try and take off some of the glitter he had all over his face and hair. Quinn stepped into the shower.

Rachel was lying with her eyes lightly shut when she heard the water of her and Quinn's in-suite shower turn off. She shut her eyes tighter when the door opened and the bright light from inside the bathroom lit up the darkened bedroom, stinging Rachel's eyes. Through the blinding light she could make out Quinn's form wrapped in a towel.

Quinn turned off the bathroom light and shuffled through her suitcase in search of pajamas. Rachel opened her eyes a little bit more and let them adjust. She smiled as she watched Quinn trying hard to be quiet as to not wake her up, not knowing that Rachel was already awake.

Quinn stood up and let her towel drop to the floor. Rachel flushed. She instantly went to close her eyes when something caught her attention. Rather than being a gentleman and turning away while her lady was indecent, she squinted her eyes to try to get a better look. Quinn's hips and thighs were marred with discolored lines.

In the darkness, Rachel could hardly tell what they were. She watched as Quinn slipped a night gown over her head and tied her hair up in a lose bun. Her arms going over her head caused the hem line of the nightgown to rise once more, exposing the inflicted skin on her thighs.

Rachel shut her eyes quickly as Quinn turned and slipped into the bed beside her 'sleeping' girlfriend.

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