"Beep, beep, beep, beep…"

Santana groaned. 6:00 AM, she thought. New year, new me.

It was the first day of school for her junior year of high school. She was an upperclassmen, big whoop; it's not like she didn't already rule the school. You see, she was a major bitch at school, but that was only a means of survival. High school was like the savannah; there was always someone trying to prey on you, or worse, the people you loved. Santana allowed nothing of the sort. Her popularity was a means of protecting her friends, and yes, selfishly, a means of protecting herself. It didn't matter in the long run; she just needed to survive. Yes, survival was key, she had learned. Until she joined the school's glee club, that is.

The year prior, Santana had joined the school's glee club in an attempt to stage a coup and overthrow it (long story). As she staged the unsuccessful coup along, she spent a long time with McKinley's unwanted; Kurt, a closeted-now-uncloseted teen gay: Mercedes, an underappreciated vocal powerhouse: Berry, the mythic bitch herself. Unrealized by her, Santana had established a connection with these outcasts. And by the time she had realized, she didn't seem to care. Despite the risk to her social status, glee club was the first thing in her life to make her feel valid and supported. It was the first thing in her life that allowed her to feel safe enough to explore her sexuality and ask out her closest friend, now girlfriend, Brittany.

Speaking of, Santana had to go pick Brittany up before school. Groaning, Santana got out of bed and got ready for the day.

"- and I can't wait to see my dolphin! Oh, and we get to bully Berry again! And-"

"Britt..."

"- hey, do you think that Quinn will get pregnant again? It wouldn't surprise me, considering the new boys that might join glee club-"

"Britt-"

"- do you think Mercedes will be all over those tater tots again? Even at the expense of Coach Sue? Imagining those two going head to head gives me nightmares-"

"BRITT."

Brittany finally fell silent. Santana loved the girl, and she hated raising her voice at her, but Brit was clearly avoiding a certain topic of conversation. They were headed towards the school in Santana's red Toyota, with Santana behind the wheel.

"- look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just… we need to talk about it."

"It?"

"It."

"Oh..."

Santana looked with pain in her eyes towards her girlfriend. Upon making eye contact, Santana's heart melted. Brittany was the prettiest girl she had ever set her sights on. For two years, Santana had crushed on her best friend. Through cheerleading with her, to the glee club, they stuck together through thick and thin- how could she not fall in love with the blonde? The summer was the first real time that Santana had confronted her sexuality, and it was all because of Britt. She was devoted to her girlfriend, which is why It pained her that this topic of conversation had to be suggested.

"Look, Britt… this summer has been… magical, for me. Finally being able to be with you… it made me connect the dots and make some more sense of things. I want this, I want us. I like you, I-" She caught herself, feeling her eyes get glassy. She wasn't ready to progress to the next line.

"Brit, I just… I really like you, and I don't want to see you getting hurt. Us getting hurt. Lima, Ohio is not the most progressive of places. We've seen what happens to Kurt. If that ever happened to you, I… I don't know what I'd-" She stopped herself, tears beginning to fall.

"Hey," Britt offered. She took Santana's free hand and grasped it, gently massaging her thumb. "I get it. We don't have to be out and proud to be happy. We can just be… us. It's cool."

Santana smiled at Britt, tears and all. Her girlfriend always knew what to say.

They pulled into the parking lot of the high school. Santana wiped her tears, squeezed Brit's hand, and then let go of it.

"Let's go in, then."

For Santana, the day had gone by rather quickly. The first day of school was always a weird one, filled with introductions and syllabuses and seating charts. And while her peers might not expect it, Santana was pretty smart for her age. Third period was her AP Chemistry class.

Seated at her table, Santana got ready for class. She pulled out her notebook, and started organizing how she would take the notes for the class

"Sup, 'Tana."

Santana looked up, and gasped. "Mike!"

Mike, pleased that "Tana" was still fond of her nickname, grinned at the fiery latina. "Can I sit here?" He gestured toward the empty seat next to her.

"Of course!" Santana assured.

Mike was a fellow glee club affiliate and athlete. Last year, her, Britt, Mike and Mike's friend Matt had formed a little clique. After spending time together as athletes for years, and then spending even more time together in the glee club, they bonded more and more and began to hang out outside of school. Despite that, Santana had barely seen Mike all summer. Last Santana heard, Mike had been busy with Tina, another glee clubber and now Mike's girlfriend. Mike and Santana had texted each other, but for the most part they spent time with their respective partners, leaving little time for their group of four to group up. That, and… Matt leaving McKinley, of course.

Mike shook Santana a little. "Hello… earth to 'Tana?" Santana left her thoughtful state, now realizing that Mike was seated next to her.

"Sorry. Got lost in thought… how's, uh, how's Tina?"

Mike grinned at the mention of his girlfriend. Tina, Mike thought. He rolled the name over his tongue, clearly infatuated with the gothic girl. The day that Mike had asked her out had been the happiest day of his life; and yes, he realized how sappy that was. Tina was his everything. Tina fulfilled his every need and desire… how couldn't she? She was his Tina.

"Okay, my turn… Mike? Stop swooning. Earth to Mike?" Santana snapped her fingers at Mike. Clearly they were both head over heels for the ladies in their lives.

"Sorry! Exposition."

"What?"

"Nothing… Tina and I are great! We hung out all summer. And, uh… we're official." Mike said, a blush slowly crawling on his face.

Santana rolled her eyes. "Duh? Dude, it's the talk of the town. The Mike Chang dating emo-asian-girl? People can't get enough of it." It was true. Ever since Jacob Ben Israel stampeded them with a camera during their date to see Harry Potter at the movie theatre ("Who'd you rather do? Tina Cohen-Chang or Cho Chang? Hey, that's my camera-"), people couldn't stop gossiping about the cutest and most unexpected couple to come out of McKinley as of late.

"Haha, yeah…" Mike scratched his head, still lost in the beauty that was Tina Cohen-Chang. Focus, Chang. Suddenly, he brought his mind back to the conversation, where Santana was smiling at him knowingly.

"Hey! How 'bout uh, you and-" He lowers his voice, eyes shifting nervously around the room.

"How's Brittany?"

Santana's smile faded a little. Last year, Mike and Matt had picked up on the chemistry between the two girls. The group of four had had a few discussions about sexuality, where they all admitted to having minor attraction to those of the same gender. Since then, Mike and Matt had pushed for Britt and Santana to get together. Santana yearned to tell Mike, but… a promise was a promise.

"Britt is… doing fine." She managed, weakly. She hoped that the feigned disappointment would work on Mike. Well, "feigned disappointment" was a reach. It was more like, "I'm sad I can't tell you that I totally banged Britt, but I hope you perceive that as I'm sad we aren't dating," disappointment.

It totally worked. Mike's face fell. "Oh, dude… that's… that's a bummer." He looked like he wanted to say more, but he looked around, and realized they were surrounded by Lima, Ohioans. Santana just nodded. Forget it, she mouthed. He nodded, although he didn't look entirely happy about the situation.

The AP Chemistry teacher cleared his throat, and class began.

Soon enough, the bell rang, signifying the end of third period. Next, Santana and Mike had choir; aka, glee club.

"Walk with me to glee?" Mike asked, Santana nodded. The two of them grabbed their stuff, and headed to the door for their next class.

"So… how's Matt adjusting to his new school?" Santana asked. She hadn't kept in touch with the boy, and figured Mike had.

Mike's face dropped. "He's, uh… he's fine." He said. Santana frowned. "Is something wrong? Did I-"

"- no, no, everything's fine, 'Tana. Matt and I just haven't talked much."

This made no sense to Santana. Mike and Matt were best friends. What could be separating them? "Why not?"

Mike shrugged. "Matt's been busy." With what, Santana wanted to ask. Sensing discomfort emanating from Mike, she didn't push. As much as she loved Mike, she respected his and Matt's boundaries. Plus, it wasn't like she didn't have her fair share of secrets.

"Mike!"

The awkward tension between Mike and Santana was erased by Mike's girlfriend running up to them.

"Tina!" Mike wrapped Tina into a warm embrace. Santana smirked. It was nice to finally see the couple in the flesh, although if she'd had it her way, she'd have Matt in Mike's embrace instead of Tina. Regardless of who it was, it did put a smile on her face to see Mike happy; even if they were practically sucking face in the middle of the hallway.

"Alright, alright, enough you two." When they didn't stop, Santana snapped her fingers. "Hey, asian lovebirds. Get a room! Specifically, the choir room." She grabbed Mike's hand, and practically dragged the two of them through the hallway.

"'Tana, wait up!" Mike and Tina caught up with her. "We were just… reintroducing ourselves." Mike expressed, blushing thoroughly.

"Uh huh," Santana judged. "Well, you two can "reintroduce yourselves" in the choir room." It was Tina's turn to blush. Santana grinned in response. "Hey, Tina."

"H-Hi, Santana." Despite Tina being known for usually faking a stutter, this time, the stutter was real. Up until last year (and even during last year), Santana had said some pretty mean stuff to the girl. It wasn't personal, just survival on the social stratosphere. But Tina didn't know that.

Noticing his girlfriend tense up, Mike squeezed Tina's hand. He knew that Santana could be pretty intense, but he cared about both of these girls, and he wanted things to work about between the two of them. He could tell Santana felt the same way.

They approached the choir room, which was buzzing with new energy. Upon entering, Santana spotted Kurt and Mercedes sitting in the corner, gossiping. Artie sat close to Kurt, not involved in the conversation but clearly involved with Kurt, which was… interesting. She'd have to keep her eye on that.

"Santana!" Upon turning to the direction of the voice, Santana saw her girlfriend running up to her. Brittany enveloped Santana in a hug, nearly knocking the wind out of her girlfriend, which caused the latina girl to blush like mad.

"Uh- h-hey, Britt!" She stammered out. Mike raised an eyebrow, quizzically. Santana kicked Brittany's foot, as if to remind her, hey we're closeted! Surprisingly, it worked. Brittany drew back.

"Mike! Tina! Hi!" Brittany pulled Mike into a hug. Britt and Mike were super close- not only had they been athletes and glee clubbers together (and a part of the Mibrittanatt squad), but they had also been in the same dance classes since they were kids. Hip hop, ballet, tap- you name it, they did it. The only other person they shared a dance class with was Kurt, who had been in ballet with them for many years, until he quit before his freshman year.

Surprising Tina, Britt let go of Mike and then pulled her into a hug as well. Brittany and Tina had never been close, but now that Mike was dating Tina, Britt was determined to change that. After all, girls gotta stick together, right? Tina blushed heavily when the older girl wouldn't let go.

"... uh, h-hi Brittany." Tina said, a smile forming across her lips. Brittany still scared the smaller girl, but this was a nice change of pace. Needless to say, Mike was beaming.

"Alright Britt, lay off, you're scaring the poor thing." Santana pulled Brittany away and sent Tina a sheepish smile.

Across the room, Mercedes and Kurt were in a heated discussion. "Mercedes, I don't think that Rachel is going to try and threaten us with a solo. Not this early, at least." Artie beamed at Kurt's statement. Kurt, was, well… anything Kurt said would be cute to Artie. He let out a very un-Artie-like giggle, which caused Kurt to blush and Mercedes to grin.

"You two are so cute together." And then, "I'm glad you're with my boy, Artie."

Artie can explain.

Last year, the glee club gals and Kurt performed Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. And… well, sitting there in the audience with the other glee club guys and watching Kurt shake that ass… let's just say he got tingles where it's 50/50 for tingling. Artie had never considered his sexuality to be anything other than straight, but the more he thought about it, the more he began to realize that perhaps he might not be completely heterosexual. Or heterosexual at all, for that matter. He's still figuring it out.

Anyways, during the summer, Tina broke up with Artie, and in retaliation, Artie texted Kurt. In short, he came out to Kurt, but really it was him asking if he and Kurt could experiment. Nothing more. After a few dates, they shared a kiss. It was both of their first kisses, and, well, the rest is history. And no, for your information, they've never done anything sexual- not that Artie hasn't thought about it. What they have is… an honest connection. And Artie wouldn't have it any other way.

Just kidding. Artie totally wants to bang Kurt. But he'll have to wait until Kurt's ready, like a proper gentleman. Kurt doesn't deserve any less.

The bell rang. Artie sighed. Thoughts about sex will have to wait. The glee clubbers took their seats, and Artie took a moment to look at everyone.

In the bottom row, towards the left corner, sat himself, Kurt and Mercedes. Next to Mercedes, Rachel was pestering Finn, although Finn was clearly trying to ignore her by staring at his phone. Behind Finn and Rachel sat Quinn, who was eavesdropping on the conversation going on next to her, between Santana, Brittany, Mike and- Tina? Why was Tina sitting with the jocks? He then noticed that Mike's hand was holding her's in her lap, and made the connection that Tina and Mike were dating.

Correction, his ex-girlfriend was dating the super-hot muscled asian athlete dancer named Mike Chang. And as if that wasn't terrifying enough, he caught Santana glaring at him, as if to say, back off. Artie gulped and looked away. Message received.

"Alright, glee club! Welcome back to another year!" Mr. Schuester grinned as he greeted the students, who cheered upon hearing him speak.

"Nationals are in New York this year, and we are going!" Kurt and Rachel shared an excited expression. "In order to do that, we're going to need more members to fill up that stage."

"Schue, I've got one for you!"

Puck walked into the room, holding hands with a girl most of the group knew only by association. "Meet Lauren, my… girlfriend." He said, in complete adoration.

The glee club reacted in dismay. Quinn could not believe it. That boy had already gone and found himself another girl to mess around with. She and Mercedes shared a disapproving glance. Boy, did she hope Lauren was on birth control. Puck didn't need to go around and mess with any other girls' lives.

"Hey. The name's Lauren. And despite what he says, I haven't said yes to anything yet."

Santana and Brit shared a look. Lauren playing hard-to-get… this could be fun.

"Well, alright then! Welcome, Lauren!" Will said. Rachel gasped.

"Are you sure, Mr. Schuester? You're not even gonna have her audition?" Rachel stood up. "She's in, just like that?"

"Well, you're in glee, Berry, so I don't think the standards are really high enough to require an audition." Santana offered. The students reacted well to the roast, although Tina wasn't happy that Mike laughed at a joke at Rachel's expense.

Schuester looked at Santana. "Watch it, Santana. And yes, typically we require an audition, but since we're short on members, I'll let it slide for now." Lauren and Puck took a seat sitting behind Kurt and Mercedes. Quinn edged away from the budding couple.

Will sighed. "Speaking of… as I'm sure you've all heard by now, Matt switched schools." Santana grimaced. It was a bummer that Matt wasn't around any longer; she'd miss the dude. She looked over at Mike, and noticed he had his head lowered. She noticed Tina rubbing small circles on Mike's hand, as if to soothe him. Which was… strange, to say the least.

"Despite his absence, we're going to find as many people to fill this club. After all, the more, the merrier, right?"

Tina frowned. "Why do we need more members? I think we're all pretty content with our group being the way that it is."

Artie nodded. "Yeah, we're kind of like a family unit. Why should we disrupt that?" Tina looked shocked that Artie was willing to agree with her on something. He had taken the breakup pretty hard… or so she thought. Had he forgiven her already?

Mr. Schuester broke her train of thought. "As well as that is, the groups we'll be facing this year are vocal powerhouses. If we want any hope of defeating Vocal Adrenaline, we're gonna need as many people out there performing as possible."

Schue grinned. "Which leads me to my next point… I've got an idea."

"Bum, bum bum! Bah bah ba. Ba. ba. Bah bah ba."

This has got to be the dumbest thing Kurt has ever done in his life. They've performed as a glee club for the entire school before, sure, but this? A flash mob in the courtyard? Kurt would rather not. And yet, Mike started the music, and Tina and Rachel began the melody. God, and they're all wearing these ridiculous costumes. Yes, it's Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z. And yes, that was his boyfriend, rapping.

"Yeah, I'mma up at Brooklyn, now I'm down in Tribeca. Right next to DeNiro, but I'll be hood forever. I'm the new Sinatra, and since I made it here, I can make it anywhere. Yeah they love me everywhere."

Kurt tried to focus on the dance moves, but it was so difficult when Artie was rapping right next to him. For one thing, it was pretty hot. Hearing Artie use such a commanding voice… damn. Not to mention how cute and dorky Artie looked when he would dance along to the rap. Watching his boyfriend be in his element just made him so gushy inside. Artie was so cute. How was he expected to focus when Artie was doing that in front of him?

"I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicans right there up on Broadway. Brought me back to that McDonald's, took it to my stash spot, 5-60 State street, catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons whipping Pastry."

In comes Finn… Kurt's heart still would flutter every time Finn would perform. He knew it was wrong; they were step-siblings now. But to be fair, before they were step-siblings, they were friends. It's not Kurt's fault that he formed a crush.

And before they were friends, Finn bullied Kurt and threw him into dumpsters. Alright, maybe his crush was a little problematic.

"8 million stories out there and their naked, cities is a pity half of y'all won't make it. Me, I gotta plug Special Ed and I got it made, if Jeezy's paying LeBron, I'm paying Dwayne Wade,

3 dice cee-lo 3 card Monte, Labor day parade, rest in peace Bob Marley. Jigga I be spiked out, I can trip a referee. Tell by my attitude that I most definitely from-"

And then there's… Puck. Oh, Puck. Kurt would let Puck do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Kurt knew he was dating Artie, but what's the problem with dreaming? It's not like Puck was gay. Besides, Puck looked hot as hell performing in the "New York" outfit Mr. Schue had put together. And he was rapping, which is apparently a turn-on for Kurt.

"In New York, Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, There's nothing you can't do. Now you're in New York, These streets will make you feel brand new. The lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York."

Oh, the group dance. Now the entire glee club, including new addition Lauren (who was trying her best and keeping up well) was dancing on the steps in the courtyard. It was exhilarating. Kurt lost himself in the music, feeling his confidence rise. He looked down at the sea of students not caring, and made eye contact with a boy.

Oh. My. God. That boy… he was so cute. And he was- was he staring at Kurt? What was with his hair? It was bleach blonde… it was so… so… dorky. Oh my... Kurt made a mental note to find and reach out to this boy about joining the glee club.

"One hand in the air for the big city. Street lights, big dreams all looking pretty. No place in the world that can compare, put your lighters in the air, everybody say yeah, yeah! yeah, yeah!"

Now his girl was performing. Mercedes always gave it her all… every time he saw his best friend perform, he was wowed by her talent. He noticed that a filipino girl was also looking at Mercedes from the audience- well, gazing lovingly would be a better descriptor. Wait, she wasn't looking at Mercedes- she was looking past her at- was she- Rachel? Did this girl have the hots for Rachel?

"In New York, Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new. The lights will inspire you. Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York."

Whatever. Kurt didn't have time to ponder this girl and her apparent interest in Rachel, of all people. He had a song to finish. He glanced back at the bleach-blonde boy, who was still gazing intently at Kurt. Uh oh, was all Kurt could think.

"Bah bah ba. Ba, Ba. Bah bah ba."