She could not believe it. After years of training, countless of hours of practice and summer bootcamps, she'd choked like none of it even mattered. It wasn't the fact that she'd made a mistake. It was more the fact that she wasn't able to recover from it. She was Rachel Barbra Berry, for Pete's sake, everyone expected the best from her, she expected the best from herself.

She'd had the weekend to wallow in her shame, but it was Monday now and she had every intention of hiding away and continue. She'd managed to avoid most of her friends and the many questions they had about her vocal recital in New York. She'd managed to use 'not wanting to be late to her next class' as an excuse, even ignoring the notes Kurt tried to send her during class because she was too focused on the lesson. But lunch was fast approaching and she knew she would have to come up with a plan to avoid them then.

She spent the last few minutes of class with her eyes fixed on the clock, her feet bouncing as she managed to slowly packed her things away without her teacher noticing. As soon as the bell rang she rushed to her feet, slinging her bag over her shoulder and pulling her books tightly to her chest. She managed to rush out of the room and into the busy hallway before anyone could say a word to her, feeling a little relieved as she got lost in the flood of students. She praised her brilliant mind for bringing lunch from home as she followed her feet to wherever they would bringing her.

Santana's day was going as well as it could considering everything happening in her life at the moment. She had gotten to school extra early for a Cheerios 'strategic meeting' .. whatever the heck that meant. She sat off to the side and listened to Sue hassle herself and the rest of the cheerleaders for their low energy at recent practices and the need for, what Santana would consider, an unnecessarily stricter diet for all flyers including herself. As one of the more senior cheerleaders on the team she knew Sue would be relying one her, Quinn and Brittany to enforce these and a couple more of her ridiculous rules.

As her day went on she'd managed to get through her morning classes with more or less ease. She had Calculus first thing in the morning and as much as she enjoyed math, it was certainly not something she looked forward to doing at 8:30 in the morning. Despite dozing off a bit in between she'd managed to understand what the old lady was going on about before making doodles in her notebook lost again in her own head. Spanish next period was super breezy. It was easy to hide out in that class as Mr. Schue spent most of his time trying to get the kids to listen and take him seriously.

Soon enough it was time for what she was starting to consider her favorite part of her day … Santana time. With a quick wave over her shoulder to Quinn and a promise to sit with her in Glee after school, she'd made her way to her locker and then to her sanctuary that was the dressing room. But something was off. The door was partially opened and she could hear muffled sounds. Of all the things she'd experienced in her almost 17 years, this was by for the most surprising thing that she's seen.

Sitting on the floor in the corner of the small room was a sad looking Berry. Her eyes were glossed and her cheeks stained with tears. She did not notice Santana enter as she dazed off in the distance, lost in her own thoughts. As much as she was concerned for the smaller girl, she overcame the urge to go near her and instead she plopped down, rather loudly, in a chair in front of the wide mirrors.

The sound must've caught Rachel's attention as she was now staring, rather wide-eyed, at the back of Santana's head. She shook her head as if trying to rid herself of any bad feelings before rubbing harshly at her eyes trying to make her tears disappear in an attempt to regain her usual composure.

Santana ignored her ... or atleast she tried to. She trying focusing her attention on the snacks in front of her and her hands that sat in her lap. She couldn't help the way her brows knitted in concern and her eyes fleeted to the mirror to look at the girl cradled on the floor. After a few minutes of a rather intense internal debate as to what to do she drew in a thin breath and let it out rather harshly.

"Berry," she let out, trying to keep her voice even. "Are you okay?" she continued without raising her eyes to meet the smaller girl. She was not used to showing sympathy or concern, especially to the likes of Rachel Barbara Berry, but the girl looked so ... sad that she could not help it.

Taken aback Rachel just looked up at Santana, unsure of how exactly to respond. She knew the girl had a fire personality and her fragile state could not do with an onslaught of vicious words that she knew the other girl was easily capable of. She swallowed nervously, blinking slowly as she thought carefully.

"Just a bad weekend," she responded, her voice small with the weight of the emotions she was trying hard to keep in. She looked down in anticipation of Santana's response, and for a while there was none. Until ...

"I'm sorry to hear that," she said in a monotonous voice. Shocked at what she was hearing, Rachel looked up to find brown eyes looking back at her in the mirror. Though her voice had bin rid of emotion, she could see in her eyes that she meant every word that she said. Their gaze only met for a brief moment before Santana looked down again. "I hope your week gets better," she spoke again, her voice fuller than before.

A small smile played on Rachel's lips as she continued to look at the other girl in the mirror. Those were probably the nicest words she'd ever heard her speak before and she'd know her since middle school. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, oddly finding comfort in the simple words.

The two of them sat and ate in silence for the rest of the lunch period. Neither making any moves to communicate with the other. Their eyes occasionally glanced up to look at the other, their gazes only missing by a few seconds. When the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, they packed away their things and went their own way to their next class.