CHAPTER 1

It was getting really dark outside as Santana was in the car with her Mami after picking her Papi up from the airport. Usually, Santana would have to stay home with her Abuela and go to sleep, but she was seven now and a big girl, her Mami had said so. Santana was really excited when she saw her Papi again as he had been away for two whole weeks because of his work and hadn't seen how much bigger she had grown, but he noticed as soon as Santana had run up and jumped into his arms. He had exclaimed about how Santana looked beautiful and had grown a lot and even picked up on the new dress she was wearing.

As they turned another corner heading away from the airport, Santana struggled to keep her eyes open. She was happy her Mami had let her come pick up her Papi but if she fell asleep now then she wouldn't get the whole experience. Plus, she just turned seven and sure she had the strength to stay awake a little longer. Just as she started to drift off to sleep, Santana was jerked awake by a sudden stop that flung her sideways harshly in her seat before her seatbelt stopped her from crashing into the car door. Grabbing her left arm in pain, Santana quickly wiped tears from her eyes. Her Mami didn't believe in crying; she always said that crying was for the weak and that Santana was strong. Instead of crying, Santana looked outside to find something to distract herself with by looking at, but all she could see was an almost completely black sky. Deciding it was late enough to sleep, Santana closed her eyes, curled up into a ball and wished the world and all her pain away.

A short time later, Santana felt herself being gently carried out of the car and placed on the ground. She knew it wasn't her Mami or Papi carrying her so opened her eyes to see a short, stocky man with black hair walking away from her towards a car. There were cars everywhere. And lots of people either standing outside them on their phones or just staring aimlessly off into the distance. As she continued assessing the area, Santana spotted the car that had to be her Mami's as it was the only red one. Red was her Mami's favourite colour. Because of this Santana was always dressed in red clothes. Although she preferred black, Santana didn't mind wearing red as it did look good on her and she liked making her Mami happy.

Her Mami's car didn't look good. It was squished badly at the front and it looked like the windshield had shattered. There were two other cars near her Mami's that looked bad too. One of them was worse though. It looked badly damaged at the front and side. Santana decided she didn't like cars anymore. They were scary and made your arm hurt really badly. Really, really, really, really badly…

Santana snapped out of her spiralling thoughts when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around quickly, she looked up to find herself staring into the bright blue eyes of a tall, very pretty young girl with long blonde hair and freckles sprinkled over her nose and cheeks. The girl seemed about Santana's own age and was looking down at her with a concerned expression on her face.

"Are you okay?" The pretty girl asked.

Santana didn't know if she was okay so didn't respond. She just kept staring into the girl's mesmerising eyes.

"Are you cold?" The girl tried again. "Because you're shaking a lot and your lips are blue."

Santana was in fact, very cold and shaking quite vigorously. She hadn't even realised, being too consumed in her thoughts. She nodded at the pretty girl in response.

Carefully taking off her bright pink fluffy jacket, the girl placed it over Santana. Pink was Santana's least favourite colour and it clashed awfully with the red outfit her Mami had put her in, but she didn't complain.

"W-won't y-you get c-cold now?" Santana asked, her voice trembling slightly.

"No," the girl responded. "I'm not the one sitting on the wet floor and I can always go get a different jacket from my Mummy and Daddy."

This girl's response once again alerted Santana to her situation. She was sitting on the cold wet floor with no idea of where her Mami or Papi where. She was coming very close to crying but knew her Mami would want her to stay strong, so she stopped herself at the last second, letting out a choked sob-like sound instead before pulling herself together.

"Are you sure you're okay?" the pretty girl asked Santana again.

Now certain of her answer, Santana shook her head. She was definitely not okay.

"I'll take you to my Mummy and Daddy. They always make me feel better when I'm sad and I'm sure they can make you feel better too." The pretty girl said, taking Santana's good hand by fluke and leading her towards her parents, one of them being the short man, even shorter than Santana's Mami, who had rescued her from the car.

"Brittany!" the man exclaimed as Santana and the pretty girl- Brittany, walked over to him. Santana thought that Brittany was a very nice name.

"Honey, we were so worried about you. Please don't wander off like that again. Are you okay?" An extremely tall woman, presumably Brittany's Mummy asked.

"I'm fine Mummy, but my friend's not." Brittany said making Santana's heart rush at being called a friend. "Can you make her feel better?"

Brittany's parents, obviously just as kind as Brittany, agreed in a heartbeat and knelt down beside Santana so that they didn't seem so tall and powerful. Santana appreciated the gesture, especially since they were getting their pants wet for her.

"I'm Whitney," Brittany's mum said introducing herself, "and this is my husband Pierce," she said gesturing to her husband. "What's your name?"

"Santana." Santana replied very quietly.

"That's a really nice name!" Brittany chirped happily getting Santana to smile slightly.

"Yes, it is a very nice name," Whitney said. "Now, Santana, can you please explain to Pierce and I what's wrong?"

"Ummm, well, my arm really, really hurts and I'm scared."

Whitney nodded gently, encouraging Santana.

"What are you scared of?" Pierce asked.

"I don't know where my parents are." Santana stated, voice wobbling heavily.

"Where did you last see them?" Whitney asked.

Not trusting her voice, Santana turned and pointed to her Mami's crushed red car.

-Thank you for reading! I'd really appreciate it if you could follow/favourite and leave a review. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post the next chapter of this fic as I have a lot of schoolwork but my other fanfiction: I Need You Too will continue to be updated weekly! Please let me know about how you thought this chapter was and suggest some storylines that you would like to see further on in the au. Once again, thank you for taking your time to read this!

Note: I don't own Glee or any copyrighted characters or material that are referred to in this story- Thanks also to my amazing friend and editor Aster