'Rachel must have some balls walking up to me in the hallway like that,' she thought to herself as Mr. Schue went on about the importance of 'feeling the music'. More surprising than Rachel's brazen actions was that of her own reaction to it all. She was amused at the unexpected conversation. But not in the usual 'Rachel is crazy and this is hilarious' kind of way. This was a different feeling.

She felt as though the lines were blurring. She was supposed to hate the girl. She always thought she was nothing more than a self-centered twat. But seeing her in the corner of that dressing room, her face painted in her own tears, ignited a feeling in Santana .. a caring one. A chill made its way down her spine.

"Santanita, come down and help me with dinner please!" She heard her mother yell from the bottom of the staircase. She huffed out an exasperated sigh before pulling herself up from her desk chair and trudging over to her door.

She forbid herself from thinking about Rachel for the rest of the night, and that worked .. until it didn't. She helped her mother prepare beef soup for dinner while they both talked about their day. As usual, Santana kept it short stating that classes were okay and that glee and cheerleading was as exhausting and entertaining as usual. Her mother, on the other hand, gave a long account of how two students in her class got into an argument over the colour of a crayon. Apparently knowing your 'aqua's from your 'celeste's was really important to 8 year olds. She chuckled as her mom expressively retold the account, laughing with a shake of a head as she did. By the time dinner was ready her dad was walking through the door and they were saying the good night greetings with hugs and kisses before getting settled at the dining table. Her mother blessed the food before her father began his usual grey's anatomy level drama stories about the other doctors at his workplace.

She loved her family and loved spending time with them. Sometimes if she stayed up late enough her mind would be plagued with alternate universe storylines of her life, where her parents would die or for one reason or another abandon her. It tore her apart and left her in tears for hours before she'd manage to calm herself down and revert back to reality. She took a moment to look across the table as her dad was laughing heartily at one of his very own dad jokes, while her mom pursed her lips in an attempt to keep her laugh concealed. She smiled at the sight, a warmth spread through her chest and the kinks in her shoulders unraveled.

After dinner she got ready for bed before slipping under the sheets, too exhausted for a movie or texting and definitely too tired for any form of work. She had done a good job of keeping her mind off of Rachel that evening, but her dreams had a mind of their own.

The next day she was out of the house a little earlier than usual, determined to make it to cheerleading practice before any of the other girls on the team. She was sat on one of the benches outside of the school casually watching YouTube videos when she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She looked back to find none other than Lady Kurt leaning in a little closer than she'd like. She begrudgingly took off her earphones and turned towards him spotting one of her famous scowls.

"What do you want Lady Hummel?" she asked with a bit of bite in her tone.

"Well I was initially going to ask you what on Earth you were doing at school at this ungodly hour, but then of course, I realized that would make me somewhat of a hypocrite seeing as I am here as well," he said with a thoughtful look before letting out a huff. "Anyway.. on my way over to you, I remembered you had a pretty interesting story to tell about how you met the one, the only Billy Porter!" he shrieked, fanning himself as he did.

She rolled her eyes at his dramatic antics but decided to entertain him nonetheless.

"There's not much of a story to tell really," she began coolly. "I have a cousin who cuts and styles hair of all textures. He worked with Billy for one of his red carpet looks. My cousin had me working as his assistant for the day, even helped style me up from head to toe for the big day. I-".

"Wait, you got to go to the event too?" he squealed before leaving his mouth agape salivating on every word of their conversation.

"Not quite. I mean, did I get to go in and sit amongst the stars? Heck no. Did I get to stay behind the scenes and speak with Billy, while stealing peeks at other stars? You bet your favorite pair of sparkly underwear that I did."

"What was he like though?" he asked eagerly, his eyes shining.

"I mean he's Billy freaking Porter. He was kind, funny as hell and above all things a walking gay angel!" she finished off with a chuckle. Kurt laughed along with her before interrogating her with more questions on Billy's outfit, make-up and skincare routine, because 'Billy is the finest 50 year old to walk the Earth's surface'.

They went on like that for a bit before they got into a squabble about what make-up brands sold the best of different products. As the bickering died down though, the realization of the friendly banter that had just occurred between them became more apparent. Santana cleared her throat and scratched the side of her neck awkwardly.

"Whatever," she said with a dismissive huff, "I gotta go .. Cheerleading and all that,". Kurt didn't argue but gave her a short nod in response and with that she was up and on her way leaving a slightly confused Kurt.

"Wait, did she call Billy a walking gay angel?"

...

Santana spent the next 10 minutes uncomfortably sitting alone in the girl's locker room. It was still very early so no one else had arrived, but the awkwardness that had built up towards the end of her conversation with Kurt had her running with her tail caught between her legs. She knew that the only direction that conversation was leading to was a dreadful bout of awkward silence and she'd rather not spend her morning having a silent stare off with fruity pebble.

She scrolled through Twitter, occasionally giggling at funny viral tweets that made their way onto her feed. Before long, the locker room was begin to fill up and morning training was commencing.

Santana was now sat in her World History class. Her teacher was busy listing off possible topics for their upcoming class project but she was nowhere focused on what he was saying. She was far too busy following the swirls and twirls of her pencil as it filled her page with different patterns. She huffed out a breath as she stretched out her arms, taking a mindless look around before something caught her attention.

Rachel Berry was sat two rows in front of her and she was wearing one of her insanely ugly but extremely short checkered skirts. Santana couldn't help but gulp, all the moisture in her throat having had suddenly disappeared. Were they always that ... no. She refused to let her thoughts go there. Curse her dirty teenage mind for thinking that way about Rachel. Roughly, she turned the page in her book and directed her attention to the teacher talking animatedly at the front of the room, making sure to keep it that way until the end of the class. As soon as the opportunity arose she grabbed her things and headed for the door. As usual, she stopped at her locker to drop off her books and made a quick pit stop at the school's vending machine for a diet soda, making sure that none of the other cheerleaders saw her.

She had made it to the auditorium without even breaking a sweat, despite her prize-worthy speed-walking skills. In a moment though, she would find that she was not the only one in a rush today for behind the dressing room door would reveal one Rachel Berry nonchalantly chomping away on a celery stick.