Thirteen
The next two weeks or so were very much the same for the two girls, they would car-pool to school, they'd go to school, where Dani had once again refused to do anything other than watch in all of their gym classes, much to Santana's dismay. No matter how hard she and Shannon Beiste tried to get Dani to do something, they failed. The most that they had managed to get her to do was change into her gym clothes- Shannon viewed that as a small victory on it's own; usually Dani wouldn't even do that. But still, she had refused to take part in any lesson until they went into the actual gym so she could work out.
Santana had glee everyday, so the days that Santana drove them to school, Dani had no real choice but to wait for her, she didn't mind though, it gave her chance to get most of her homework done in the library. And on the days that Dani drove them both to school, while Santana was in glee, Dani would go to the movies with her friends, while Santana would get a lift home with Quinn.
One thing that never changed for the girls though, was that every night, when Santana was done with glee, or when Dani got home from being out with her friends, they would hang out with each other. Usually in either one of their houses, though sometimes, they did make their way into Dani's back yard. Dani's mom, dad and brother had all become accustomed to seeing Santana around, though, whenever Will saw her there, he would make remarks about them being a couple, which usually sent Santana's heart into over drive and even made Dani blush a little.
Dani would admit that she found Santana attractive, she had always thought that about the girl, and had always thought that Santana was hot. One thing she wouldn't admit however, was that, as they got closer, her feelings for the other girl got much stronger. Dani wasn't ready to admit that she had a slight crush on Santana, even to herself; so instead, she just decided to shrug her feelings off.
On the Wednesday after the trip to Cleveland that never happened, Dani had finally had more than a two word conversation with Santana's parents, the girls had gone over to Santana's after school that day, not realising that the Lopez's were going to be there. They had run into the house hand in hand after Santana had had to drag Dani in from the rain.
When Santana's dad had seen the pair of them with their fingers laced together, he had given Santana a knowing look, and had winked at his daughter. To her credit, Dani had shrugged this off, at least while Javier was around, once she and Santana were alone she had questioned her on what it was all about.
Santana hadn't wanted to be honest with the girl and tell her that her parents kept making jokes about them being more than just friends, so instead, she had shrugged her shoulders and had lied, giving Dani a simple 'beats me' as her reply.
Dani had accepted this and the pair of them had continued the night as if nothing had happened.
On the Saturday, after Dani had been for her usual run, and had showered and was dressed once again, she checked their mail, finding that once again the mail man had put something intended for the Lopez's in their mail box, she had taken it around, and had quickly been invited into the house by Santana's mother. That was when Dani met Santana's abuela, and realised just how judging the older woman could be.
That night, they had they're usual crappy movie night, but it was done at Santana's place instead after Maribel invited Dani to stay for dinner, and Santana suggested that she should stay the night. Santana had failed to find a movie that beat The Pill so she was still winning their little contest with her first movie choice.
That Sunday, Santana point blank refused to go anywhere with Dani, after their sham of a trip to Cleveland, so instead they had had another Disney movie marathon, which consisted of them watching Aladdin, Pinocchio and The Black Cauldron. Though, neither of them actually understood what was happening in The Black Cauldron and gave that up as a bad job, only watching half of it before getting bored and finding something else to do.
But it was now Thursday once again, September was almost at the end of it's third week, bringing October around with it, September seemed to be zooming past everyone just as quickly as August had. Not that anyone was complaining, that just meant that Christmas and winter break were one step closer.
Dani was sat in her car, waiting for Santana to hurry up and finish glee, that day even tough Dani had been invited out with her friends, she had decided to wait for Santana instead. The girl had a lot of work to do, and had been putting it off to spend time with Santana, not that her other friends needed to know that.
Dani had her eyes closed as she listened to her music, drumming away lightly on her steering wheel, the sound of the passenger side door shutting made Dani open her eyes slowly.
"Sorry." Santana said, smiling slightly, she always had a smile on her face when she had just been to a glee meeting.
Dani shook her head, "Don't worry about it, I knew what I was getting myself into waiting for you after hours… besides, I got a good chunk of my five-thousand word essay done, so I can't complain."
"Five thousand words?" Santana said, "That's what we have to do in English?"
"Well, it's what my class had to do, I don't know about yours." Dani said with a simple shrug.
"When you say a good chunk you mean, like what, a thousand words right?"
Dani shook her head, "Nope, more like half of it done." Dani pulled out of the parking lot with ease, she loved when there were hardly any cars in it, she didn't have to worry about the idiots who would pull out in front of you just because they thought it was funny.
"Jesus Christ, when's it due in?"
"Just before winter break."
"So why are you doing it now? It's not even October yet."
"No but it will be very soon, Santana, we are at the end of the third week of September. It's gonna come round faster than you think." She said, "So, I'm getting it done, plus there's the whole, draft hand in dates so that Miss Spencer can check them for us… it's better to have it done now."
"Let me guess, another thing you picked up off of your dad?" Santana asked.
Dani rolled her eyes, "Maybe." She said.
"Thought as much." Santana mumbled.
The air around them went quiet, Dani glanced at Santana, trying to find something to say, her mind drew a complete blank before she settled on saying, "So, this whole glee club thing." She turned her head slightly to look at Santana, "What do you do in there, and please don't give me a sarcastic, 'we sing'. Because I know that, but what I am asking is, what do you do in there, that makes you love it so much?"
Santana shrugged, "Honestly, I don't really know what it is about it, but it's just the best part of my day." Well other than when I see you
"Apart from when you see me." Dani said jokingly, with a small chuckle.
Are you a mind reader? Santana thought or did I just say that out loud. Santana shook her head slightly, "Obviously." She added slightly uneasily. "And Dani, I really do hate to do this, but in glee club, literally all we do is sing." She said, "You pick a song, and you perform it to the club and Mr Schuester. It's all part of an assignment that we do each week." She explained, "Oh and each year we have three competitions, you have sectionals, then regional's and then nationals, and competing is hands down the best part about glee."
Dani smiled slightly at Santana's enthusiasm, cute, really cute she thought, wait, since when do I think Santana's cute? "S-so what type of songs do you sing then, is it all just show tunes or…?" Dai asked uneasily, she wanted to know more about the club and why Santana enjoyed it so much, but she didn't want to see any more enthusiasm from the girl, mainly because she didn't want to think she was cute.
Santana shook her head, "Nope. It isn't just show tunes. I think that people get the wrong idea about what it actually is." She said. "Each week we get an assignment from Mr Schue…"
"That's the old Spanish teacher, right?" Dani asked, Santana nodded her head, "Worst teacher ever." Dani said shaking her head slightly.
"Yeah, he was for Spanish, trust me I complained so much about him, he butchered my language and sometimes my culture." Santana said, she shook her head slightly, "Anyway, back on track, so he sets us these assignments, one week it could be 'love and heartbreak' so you'd have to find a song for either of those categories, it could be a show tune if you want, but it doesn't have to be." Santana said.
"Okay so, basically, it's a sing what you want, so long as it matches a theme?"
"Exactly." Santana said, "But my favourite assignment is the 'boys vs. girls' assignment that we do each year."
"Hmm." Dani said, "I see."
"Why the sudden interest in glee?" Santana asked, "You thinking about joining?"
"I might." Dani said nodding her head, "You just always seem so happy when you come out of it," she said, "You enjoy it, who's to say I won't?"
"Well you would have to audition first, but I can't really see you struggling to get in with a voice like yours." Santana said, "I mean, you're pretty talented."
"And here I was thinking that I was just pretty." Dani said jokingly. Well, you're that too. Santana thought, "So when will I actually be able to audition?" Dani asked.
"We've got another glee meeting tomorrow, obviously, so just turn up and say you want to audition and you'll be straight in, seriously, the more voices the better," Santana said, "and your voice is an amazing one, you could actually be the difference between us winning and losing."
"Will there be time for me to audition, it's not exactly the start of the year anymore, is it?"
"Yeah, it's the end of the assignment," Santana said, "Hardly anyone even performs on the Friday, so it might just be your audition that we all watch, then because it's the end of the week and the assignment, Mr Schue will probably give some bull shit speech about what the real lesson of it all was, then he'll probably set the next- and your first- glee assignment."
"Well my first assignment, assuming I get in."
"You will." Santana said confidently.
Dani nodded her head, "Maybe." She said, "Will you help me pick a song?"
Santana nodded her head, "Yeah definitely."
"Well thank you, though, it does mean that you've got to spend just a little more time with me tonight."
"I can't see that being a problem." Santana chuckled.
oOoOo
"No, no and no." Dani said ticking off the three songs Santana had just suggested for her.
"Why not? All of those songs are amazing."
"Yes, they are, but I think they are a little too predictable for an audition. I don't want to try too hard. I want a song that's good, that everyone will like and that I know I can kill." Dani said shrugging, "I don't know if those songs are right for that."
"Why wouldn't they be?"
"Because okay, just because." Dani said, she continued to look threw her binders and notebooks containing her sheet music in them.
"Okay so what about this one?" Santana asked, she threw the notebook towards Dani on the two open pages containing the sheet music for the song, 'You Haven't Seen The Last of Me.' from Burlesque.
Dani turned her mouth down in thought, "I don't know. I mean, I love it, but I want something different for my audition song. I'm not opposed to singing a song from a musical, but just not that one."
"Urgh." Santana groaned, "You are way too picky." She said, "Seriously, just pick a fucking song."
"Stop being so bossy." Dani said, she sighed and opened up one of her songbooks to a random page, she looked at the title of the song quickly, and smiled slightly. She walked over to her keyboard and turned it on before quickly grabbing the chair from her vanity and sitting in front of the instrument. "What do you think about this?" Dani asked.
She started to play the song, it was a song that Santana had never heard before, it was soft, and slow.
"I wish I could bubble wrap my heart
In case I fall and break apart
I'm not God I can't change the stars
And I don't know if there's life on mars
But I know you're hurt,
People that you love and those who care for you,
I want nothing to do with the things you're going through."
Once again, Santana found herself getting lost in Dani's voice and how effortless Dani made singing seem. Spending as much time as she had with Dani over the last three week had definitely given her a strong attraction to the girl. And sitting with her now, listening to her singing, and watching as she toyed with the keys on the instrument, did very little to help Santana's case. If anything, it only made her feel more attracted to the blonde haired girl.
"This is the last time,
I give up this heart of mine,
I'm telling you that I'm
A broken man who's finally realised.
You're standing in moonlight,
But you're black on the inside,
Who do you think you are to cry?
This is goodbye."
The way that Dani sang the song, hit Santana, there was so much passion in the shorter girl's voice, which only made her performance that much better.
"I'm a little dazed and confused,
Life's a bitch and so are you.
All my days have turned into nights,
'Cause living without, without, without you in my life.
And you wrote the book on how to be a liar,
And lose all your friends,
Did I mean nothing at all?
Was I just another ghost that's been in your bed?"
A small smile slowly spread across Santana's face as she watched her best friend closely.
"'Cause this is the last time,
I give up this heart of mine,
I'm telling you that I'm
A broken man who's finally realised.
You're standing in moonlight,
But you're black on the inside,
Who do you think you are to cry?
This is goodbye."
As the music picked up Santana furrowed her eyebrows slightly, she certainly hadn't been expecting the melody change.
"Yeah!
Turn on the radio honey,
'Cause every single sad song you'll be able to relate!
This one I dedicate.
Whoa oh!
Don't get all emotional baby,
You can never talk to me, you're unable to communicate!"
Dani started to play the song slower again. Santana found herself unable to look away from Dani's fingers as they moved along the keys.
"This is the last time,
I give up this heart of mine,
I'm telling you that I'm
A broken man who's finally realised..."
Santana hadn't ever heard the song before, but she couldn't wait to hear Dani sing it again tomorrow, in fact, she just couldn't wait to hear Dani sing again in general.
"This is the last time,
I give up this heart of mine,
I'm telling you that I'm
A broken man who's finally realised.
You're standing in moonlight,
But you're black on the inside,
Who do you think you are to cry?
This is goodbye.
This is goodbye."
Dani played the last few notes of the song, with a small, sad smile on her face, she turned around to face Santana who was sitting with her mouth slightly agape. "You'll catch flies if you don't close your mouth." Dani teased.
"That. Was. Amazing." Santana said, "Seriously, you have got to sing that tomorrow." Santana said.
"Really, you think?"
Santana nodded her head, "Absolutely," She said, "If you sing that, you'll storm your audition and will easily get a place in glee club… you sounded fantastic."
"Hmm, I might just have to take your word for it and sing that then."
Santana nodded her head, "Who's that song by anyway?" She asked, "I've never heard it before."
"That would be McFly." Dani said. "It's from their third album."
"Ahh that would explain why I don't know it then." Santana shrugged, "I'm not a huge fan of theirs." She said.
Dani smiled slightly, "I love them," she said, "I saw them live once, and I actually cried." She admitted, Santana furrowed her eyebrows at she shorter girl, "Look, I was younger than I am now, and I really do love them. They are one of my favourite bands, and I just got really emotional when I finally got the chance to see them, and I cried." She shrugged, "I do it a lot. I've been to a lot of gigs or festivals and when someone that I really like comes on stage, I cry."
"That's cute." Santana said, Dani smiled slightly and shook her head at the taller girl.
"You're mocking me, and you were mocking me when we watched The Lion King, admit it."
"I'm not mocking you now and I wasn't mocking you then… I just think it's cute that you get that into stuff that you cry about it."
"Okay, so if you and I ever went to a gig, and I started crying, you wouldn't laugh at me? Like you wouldn't even have a little giggle at me?" Dani challenged.
Santana shook her head, "No I'd ask you why you were crying over it, but I wouldn't laugh at you." Not now I know and like you anyway, maybe a couple of months ago I would have.
"Huh." Dani said, the sound of the shorter girl's voice had pulled Santana out of her thoughts and back to reality. "Adriana laughed when we saw McFly… but then she cried later on in the night so I got to laugh at her, karma's a bitch, y'see."
oOoOo
Dani and Santana were stood in the kitchen; Santana was stood helping Dani cook for once rather than sitting at the kitchen island.
"So when did you learn how to cook?"
"Erm, I think I was around thirteen, I used to watch my mom cooking all the time, and one day I asked if I could help her, she obviously said yes, and since then I've cooked every night really, when mom's home we help each other. But I think it was a really good job that I learnt because now they're away every weekend, and had I not learnt how to cook, Will and I would be living on take out food. Will wouldn't mind that, but I sure would."
"Why take out food is awesome?"
"Yeah but it's pretty bad for you."
"Since when do you care about things like that?" Santana asked, "You want even do gym class?"
"That's why I need to worry about things like that," Dani admitted, "We can't all look like you, y'know?"
Santana rolled her eyes; "There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way you look."
"Thanks, you're not too bad yourself." Dani shrugged.
Understatement of the goddamn century Danielle! Wait, since when did I have a crush on Santana? Has that always been a thing, I mean, yeah the girl's hot and all, but where did that come from?
oOoOo
"Fuck this is frustrating." Santana groaned, "seriously, I can't do this." Santana said shaking her head and throwing the guitar down onto the bed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Dani said, "No need to take that out on Steve." She said, picking the guitar back up and checking it for any marks.
"Sorry but I can't do it."
Dani rolled her eyes, "I am sure that with a little time, you could do it." Dani said, "Come on try again." She said, handing the guitar back to the taller girl, Santana sighed and positioned the guitar back on her lap.
"Dani I'm not sure that this is such a good idea."
Dani rolled her eyes once more, "Stop being so pessimistic, come on, I know you know how to finger things." I wish I knew how well you could finger things. Santana's mouth dropped open slightly, and for a split second, Dani worried that she had spoken her thoughts out loud.
Jesus Christ, does this girl not have a filter? "Can you not right now with the jokes?"
"Sorry." Dani said, "But come on, you should be able to do this easily, I've even been positioning your fingers for you, I'm doing half of the work."
"Yes, I know you are but... just holding it feel uncomfortable."
Dani twisted her mouth in thought, "Santana are left or right handed?" She asked, watching as the girl struggled slightly.
"I'm a lefty, why?"
"Well you're trying to play that thing right handed." She said nodding to the guitar. "There's your problem."
"Oh... so what does that mean?"
Dani shrugged, "Nothing, just means you'd feel more comfortable if you held it the other way, but the strings are sort of upside down if you do that, the lower notes would be at the bottom, while the higher ones would be at the top, so you could do it, but it'd be a little backwards, it'd probably need re-stringing." Dani explained.
"See!" Santana said, "I told you I couldn't do it."
Dani shook her head, "That doesn't matter," She said, "I promise you, I will have you playing at least one song on the guitar by the end of senior year, even if I have to re-string no name to help you out."
"No name?"
Dani nodded, "Yeah no name, my other acoustic," Dani explained nodding in the direction of her other guitar, "Remember I told you how Steve is the only one with a name?" Santana nodded.
"Can I name no name, or do you want her to stay as that?"
Dani smiled and shook her head, "No, you can name her." She said. "And well done for even giving it a gender." She smiled.
"Hmm," Santana looked at the guitar and tilted her head slightly, "I like Rose." She said.
"Rose?" Santana nodded her head, "Okay, Rose it is." She said smiling, "I guess that actually works out kind of well, I mean, Rose McDowall is one of my favourite musicians."
"Who's she?"
Dani's mouth dropped open slightly and she shook her head, "Rose McDowall is the lead singer in the duo Strawberry Switchblade, then she did some solo stuff, she's amazing, and back in the day, she was pretty easy on the eyes, too." Dani said.
"Why does that name ring a bell in my head? The Strawberry one?"
"Oh because the first time I sang to you, I told you that I learnt a song they'd done a cover of." Dani said, she felt shocked that she actually remembered something like that, she couldn't remember the first song she sang to anyone, let alone the conversation leading up to it, so why did the conversation with Santana still ring clear in her head.
"Huh, I don't really remember that." Santana shrugged, I remember hearing you sing, but I can't say I actually listened to the song, I was more impressed by your voice.
"Well that's why anyway." Dani said, feeling a little embarrassed that she remembered when Santana didn't.
"Sing me another song by her?"
Dani bit her lip before saying, "You've heard me singing enough, how about you sing this time, while I play?"
Santana twisted her mouth slightly, before saying, "Okay Mitchell, you've got yourself a deal." She nodded her head and grinned when Dani clapped her hands excitedly, "You're a nerd." She said, she shook her head, "Anyway, what am I sining?"
"Anything you want." Dani said, "And if I know it, I'll play it."
"Hmm." Santana said, "Do you know, I'm yours by Jason Mraz?" She asked Dani nodded her head and started to play the song, smiling at Santana.
The taller girl took a deep breath before opening her mouth to sing, she knew it was the first time Dani was properly going to hear her singing, and she felt slightly intimidated, she'd never had a problem with singing in front of people before, but with Dani it was different, the girl was extremely talented, and not to mention, hot as hell.
She saw Dani smiling as she sang the song, and instantly felt more at ease, loosening up slightly as she sang.
As she watched Santana singing, Dani felt warmth swelling in her chest, she knew there and then that this was a dangerous thing for her to be feeling; she had enough life experience to know how badly falling for a friend could knew that liking a girl like Santana would be no exception to that rule, for starters' look at the girl, look at all of the people that she could have if she really wanted them. Dani was under no illusion that Santana would even remotely want her; if anything, Dani felt the exact opposite about the situation.
Watching Santana, and feeling this way made it difficult for Dani to focus on what she was doing, she had to will herself to keep going, to keep playing. More than anything she wanted to stop and just listen to the other girl.
Dani had always thought that Santana was an attractive girl, how could she not? But lately, those feelings were just getting stronger and stronger by the day. It was no longer just Santana's face and body that Dani found herself interested in, but Santana on a whole. Since being friends with her, Dani had realised just how caring, sweet, kind and funny Santana was. Those things had done little to help Dani if anything, they had only made her more attracted to her.
As Dani looked at Santana, her mind seemed to wonder; she's not going to want you, why would she? Look at you, and then look at her. Seriously, you'd be wise to just get over her now. I mean it; don't be am idiot about this one… build a bridge and get over her… that or you could try getting under her… OH MY GOD! NO! STOP IT! Kindly remove your head from the gutter now!
Oh who am I kidding? Your heads constantly in the gutter, aint no stopping you having thoughts like that… even if she is your BEST FRIEND!
oOoOo
Friday seemed to blur past Dani, up until the point where she couldn't really avoid it anymore. After she had done with her art class, she packed her things away and made her way down to the choir room, shifting the over sized sweater back over her shoulder. As she neared the door, she let her hair down and tussled it a little bit before taking one final deep breath.
"Knock, knock." Dani said, she peeked her head around the door and looked at the familiar faces of her fellow students. She found Santana sitting at the back of the room, next Quinn, who was dressed in her usual Cheerios uniform. Dani sent Santana a quick smile and a wink, making Santana's heart skip a beat.
"Uh, hi." Mr Schuester said, he quirked his eyebrow at Dani as she started to walk into the room, "Can I help you?" He said.
"Yeah, actually you can." She said, "I'd like to audition." She gave the people in the room the best smile that she could muster. Some of the other members of the glee club gave Dani a questioning look as they took in the sight of the blonde haired girl.
"Erm, okay then..."
"Dani." She said, "Or Danielle." She shrugged, "It doesn't really bother me either way." She admitted.
"Alright, Dani, take it away."
Dani thought about the song that she and Santana had chosen for her audition, after Santana went home she had practiced it relentlessly, focusing more on the music rather than the lyrics, she knew them by heart. It was safe to say she had started to regret her choice. She started to think through all of the songs that she knew well enough to just pluck one out of thin air and play it to a standard that would get her in the club.
She looked around the room, feeling a small amount of nerves build in her system. Her eyes fell onto an acoustic guitar sitting in the corner of the room, "Can I?" Dani said pointing at the instrument. Mr Schue nodded his head and smiled at the short girl.
Dani let out a sigh of relief, she loved all of the instruments that she could play and loved playing all of them, but she had always felt more comfortable and confident if she had a guitar with her.
Santana furrowed her eyebrows at the shorter girl, the last time she had checked, Dani was going to be playing the piano. She had loved the song choice that she and Dani had picked. And she knew that Dani could sing it flawlessly.
Dani cleared her throat slightly before she started to play her new song choice, hoping that it was the right decision to make a last minute change. It wasn't long before her voice was filling the choir room.
"I'm going away for a while
But I'll be back don't try and follow me
Cause I'll return as soon as possible."
She allowed herself to look away from what her hands were doing on the guitar so that she could focus on the other faces of the people in the choir room. All eyes were on her, and Dani found it hard to read their expressions.
"See I'm trying to find my place
But it might not be here where I feel safe
We all learn to make mistakes
And run from them, from them
With no direction.
We'll run from them, from them,
With no conviction."
Dani felt her confidence building up the more that she sang her song. She allowed her eyes to fall onto Santana's who had a small smile playing in the corners of her mouth.
"'Cause I'm just one of those ghosts
Travelling endlessly, don't need no road
In fact they follow me.
And we just go in circles."
By the end of the first chorus, Dani felt more like her usual self. Her confidence was back in her body in it's fullest form.
"But now I'm told that this is life
And pain is just a simple compromise
So we can get what we want out of it.
Would someone care to classify
Our broken hearts and twisted minds so I can find
Someone to rely on, and run to them, to them.
Fully speed a head."
While Dani continued to sing, Santana found herself more in awe of the girl than ever before. She had heard Dani sing countless times now that they were closer. She had sat with her while the girl practiced for her audition and had fallen slightly in love with the sound of Dani's voice. But this time, there was something different. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. But still there was something new in the tone and sound of Dani's voice.
"Oh you are not useless
We are just, misguided ghosts, travelling endlessly
The one's we trusted the most. Pushed us far away.
And there's no one road. And we should not be the same.
But I'm just a ghost and still the echo me.
They echo me in circles."
The people in glee club started to clap for her and some even stood for the shorter girl, a beaming smile made its way onto her face. She let out a breath of relief that she hadn't even known she was holding in.
"Alright, let's here it for our newest member, Dani..."
"Mitchell." Dani said smiling.
"Dani Mitchell." Mr Schue said clapping his hands together loudly once again.
oOoOo
"I thought that you were gonna sing your McFly song?" Santana asked as she and Dani headed for the taller girls car.
Dani shrugged, "I don't know, I guess that when it actually came to me singing and I was actually stood there in front of all of you, it just seemed like such a bad choice." She said, "But Misguided Ghosts seemed perfect." She admitted. "Why did it suck?" She asked, Santana couldn't help but detect the panic as it edged its way into Dani's voice.
"What?!" Santana asked as she climbed into the silver car, "No, why would you even think that?"
"It's just with you asking about it." Dani admitted.
"No I was just wondering because that was the song we…you, decided on last night, and then you go and change it… you sounded awesome, really you did, but it came as a shock to me."
"One hundred percent sure, like you're not lying to me?"
Santana shook her head, "No, you sang that song beautifully, Dan." Santana said, "There's no need to wonder how you got in, honestly, I think had he said no to you today, I'd have quit." She said.
"Well thank you." Dani said, "You always seem to know what to say to me to make me feel better." Dani said. There was a beat of silence before Dani said, "Oh fuck… now I'm one of the glee losers." She smirked slightly and glanced at Santana who narrowed her eyes jokingly.
oOoOo
Dani and Santana were laying in Dani's bed, they'd had a pretty full movie night, which had started with Dani and Santana going to the store near their houses and spending more money than needed on candy, chocolate, potato chips and lots of other junk food. It was nearing three in the morning, but neither one of the girls was showing any signs of going to sleep any time soon, they'd found themselves in an easy conversation, just asking each other any random question that came into their heads.
The air around them both was silent, until one of them decided to break it.
"So when did the realisation that you're gay actually hit you? Or have you always just known, like Kurt?" Santana asked, "Are you a gold star gay?" She said, rewording her question.
Dani smirked slightly, "Oh trust me, I get gold stars"- why don't I doubt that for a second Santana thought, before she was quickly shaken from them by the blonde girl speaking, "No, I'm not a gold star gay." She said shaking her head, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I used to date guys, I've dated a few actually, and for a long period of time, but they have always been from different schools, that's why you never really see me holding hands with anyone."
"Why no one from McKinley good enough for you?" Santana asked teasingly.
"No it's not that, it's just, I guess no one from McKinley has ever really caught my eye." Apart from you, maybe… fuck Dani thought, she took a deep breath and said, "So I date people from different schools. I used to meet them at Between The Sheets, or at the Lima Bean, or whatever." She said, "They'd just walk up to me and start a conversation." She continued, "Some of them would use these pick up lines, that were so cheesy, but usually they worked." Dani explained, "but one day when I was looking for sheet music at Between The Sheets, I got talking to this girl, from the private school." She sighed, "I guess we just got really close, really fast…"
Santana cut her off by saying, "As fast as we did?"
Dani shook her head, "No. Not that fast, but fast." She said. She sighed, "Anyway, I guess I never really gave it any thought, I mean, obviously I knew that she was pretty and she was, she was really pretty, but I had a boyfriend, so I just thought it was one of those things like, a 'I can appreciate a good looking girl when I see one, it doesn't mean anything.' Y'know?"
Santana nodded her head and chuckled slightly, "Yeah I remember those days." She said, "They were fun."
"Tell me about it." Dani said sarcastically, "Anyway, erm yeah I had a boyfriend so I just thought, oh she's a friend, and I just happen to think she's really cool, and funny and pretty, but that doesn't mean anything."
"How wrong you were."
"I'm not done that's rude." Dani said jokingly, Santana rolled her eyes slightly, "But at that time, everything with my boyfriend was just really boring, like, I felt pretty much nothing for him." She said, "The kissing was dull, the dates were just blah, I mean even the…" Dani trailed and rolled her eyes while Santana smirked and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, "Whatever it was all boring." She said, "And one day, me and Sarah were sitting outside, I'd been playing the guitar and she was singing and before she went home she kissed me."
"What did you do?" Santana asked.
"Well at first I completely froze." She admitted, "it scared me, like I was terrified because of the way I'd been feeling about her and everything, but before long, I was kissing her back, it just felt like the right thing to do." She admitted with a small shrug, "And in that kiss, and this sounds so cliché, but it is true. In that one kiss with Sarah, I felt so much more than I had in four months of being with Nathan."
"So what happened?"
"Me and Sarah had been hanging out for probably three months at that point, but it had been like three weeks since the initial kiss, but we had been kissing each other a lot. And I knew that I liked it, I really liked it, we both did." Dani said with a smile. "So, I decided to break up with Nathan, and to give what me and Sarah had a chance, obviously it was a secret thing." Dani said, "I mean, I'm so deep in the closet I'm having dinner with the White Witch." She said, "but things were going really great with us… or I thought they were, but five month in she broke up with me."
Dani shrugged, "It was obvious that it was because I wasn't ready to come out, but she is so open about who she is." Dani said, "She never told me that, but I knew." She said with a nod. "I was upset, obviously, but I moved on from her and I started to date another guy."
"But…"
Dani held her finger up to silence the other girl. "I was way too scared to admit that I was anything more than bisexual." She said, "I couldn't deny that I was attracted to girls, not after the stuff I had done with Sarah but I didn't want to admit that I was a lesbian." Dani sighed, "So I was bi."
She laughed dryly, "Or at least, that's what I was telling myself," she said with a shrug, "but again, when I was with that guy, nothing felt right, it was bland I just felt nothing, so I called it off after a month, we hadn't even done anything other than kiss, but that's when I realised, I was done with guys in that sense, it doesn't work for me." She sighed, "That's when it hit me that I like girls and not guys."
"And then I met this other girl from Carmel, she was amazing, in everyway. Like she was near perfect." Dani admitted. "We were together for six month. Everything was great for about five of those month, pretty sure what I felt for her was love, but you can probably guess why we broke up." Dani said.
Santana nodded, "You weren't ready and she was?"
Dani nodded, "Exactly." She said, "I can't exactly say I blame them; nobody wants to think that they're just this dirty little secret, but I guess that's how I made them feel."
Dani couldn't believe how open she was being with Santana; no one knew half of this stuff. This is what trust is. Dani thought I'm happy I can and do trust you.
"You know something, if I were your girlfriend, I honestly wouldn't mind." Santana said softly, "I'd wait for you to be ready to be open about it, no matter how long that took." Santana said, "I wouldn't end things just because you're a little scared, everyone get's scared."
If she were my girlfriend! Not if I was hers, but if she was mine…she'd wait for me… all I know is if she were my girlfriend, I'd be pretty damn happy. And I sure as hell wouldn't breakup with her just because we were gonna be in different states, who the hell does that anyway?! Why let a girl like her go?
Yeah… I am totally screwed with this one, Dani thought.
She took a deep breath trying to calm herself down from the thoughts of Santana as her girlfriend. "Really?" She asked quietly, Santana nodded her head slowly and gave Dani a reassuring smile. "Well, I guess that's just the difference in people right?" Dani asked, "You find decent people in life and then you find some total assholes."
Santana nodded her head. "Yeah maybe you've just been picking the wrong type of girls?" Santana said yeah, try picking me next time she thought.
Dani bit her lip and nodded her head, "Yeah it'd definitely look that way wouldn't it?" She looked down slightly, trying to avoid eye contact with Santana- she didn't need to be gaining any more feelings for her, the ones she had were more than enough. "So what about you?"
"W-what?" Santana stuttered her eyes widening slightly, what about me? What does she mean 'what about me'? "What do you mean, what about me?"
Dani looked up taking in the look on the taller girl's face, "I mean, what about you, when did you figure it out?" She asked before she grabbed one of her cherry drops and placed it in her mouth.
"Oh…" she said, taking a deep breath Jesus Christ of course she meant that, you moron! "I figured it out in a pretty similar way to you." She explained, "But I didn't have the two girls, I just had Brittany." And now how I feel about you… yeah those things pretty much confirm it for me. "I mean, I guess I knew that I found other girl's attractive,but like you said, I though it was the whole 'appreciation' thing. So for me it was always just Brittany." She said, "One day we were just hanging out at my place and we'd been play fighting and tickling each other, all that jazz. And I kissed her."
Santana shrugged, "Like you said, it just felt natural." Santana smiled, thinking back to the fond memory. "From there everything just progressed. We started out as a friends with benefits deal, while I was still sleeping around with guys and dating guys I wouldn't admit it to myself that I was even bi. But then, something changed, and me and Britt just stopped fooling around and started dating." Santana explained, "I kept her in the dark, no one knew for so long. I just wouldn't tell anybody. She understood that, she waited for me." Santana said, "And now, I'm out, well so to speak." She said, "My abuela doesn't know, but pretty much everyone else does."
"I see." Dani said. "So what about you and Brittany now?" Dani asked, "You don't seem so bad anymore."
"I'm not," Santana said, thanks to you, "I'm getting over her a bit each day. I still talk to her, I mean, she was my best friend and my girlfriend." Santana shrugged, "but like I said, it's over, no point in moping about it. That doesn't help anybody."
Dani nodded her head in agreement. "I guess you're right there. I know I felt a lot better once I'd gotten over Anna... it took me a while, but I did it, and now I'm completely over her."
Santana smiled at the shorter girl, there was a beat of silence before she spoke again.
"So, when was your first time?" Santana asked. Dani chuckled and covered her face up with her hands; Santana couldn't help but find it slightly adorable. "What's wrong with you? You never have a problem making jokes about this type of shit… so why does this bother you?"
Dani moved her hands away from her face, "I don't know, it just is." Maybe because a totally gorgeous girl seems to want to know all about my sexual exploits… that type of thing does this to a person. She took a deep breath and said, "Okay with a boy or a girl?"
"Hmm, go girl and then we'll discuss the boys." Santana said.
"Jesus Christ," Dani mumbled, "When you said that you wanted to play a questions game, I wasn't expecting it to escalate to this." Dani admitted. "Erm, my first time with a girl was obviously Sarah she was at my place, my parents were in Columbus, Will and Adriana were out so it was just the two of us." Dani said, thinking back to that night in her sophomore year, "We were watching a movie and we just started making out and it escalated."
"Yeah but who came on to who?" Santana said, "Like, y'know, who was the instigator and who just said, 'yeah okay then'?"
"Well while we were kissing, she pulled away slightly and suggested it." Dani said, "I obviously said yes, I meanI really wanted to." Dani admitted, "but I think it was a lot nicer than just a 'you wanna do it?' and a 'yeah okay'." Dani said.
"I mean, I did think about it a little bit, because we hadn't been together that long and it was a huge step for me… it was awkward in a way; I'd never been with a girl before and she had." Dani explained, "She had expectations, and I was nervous and clumsy."
"Aren't you always clumsy?" Santana asked laughing slightly.
Dani rolled her eyes, "Yeah but imagine it like on a bigger scale." Dani said. She sighed, "Anyway, it's your turn, lovely." Lovely? Why would you call her that? I mean she is but… God!
"It was with Brittany." Santana said, "And it was a first for us both, neither of us had been with a girl… I guess it was better that way there weren't any expectations. We'd been with guys in the past but…" she smiled, "It was really nice though."
Dani nodded her head, "Oh mine was nice, amazing even… I just had no idea what I was doing all that much… she seemed to like it though." Dani said proudly, "in fact she seemed to really like it… we did it like three or four times that night."
"You dawg." Santana said.
"That's me, I know how to please." She said with a simple shrug.
Santana smiled slightly I bet you do, she thought, she quickly removed the thoughts from her mind. "So who was your first time in general then?" Santana asked, "All the details, who? When? Where?... Why?" She added jokingly.
"My first time was with a guy called, Max. He went to Dalton Academy, he was older than us, he'll be in college now." Dani said, she opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Santana.
"Oh so you like private school kids." Dani rolled her eyes and nipped Santana's thigh lightly, playfully. "No, I'm sorry, I'll listen. Continue."
"Okay, so like I was saying. He was from Dalton, we'd been dating for around two months, he was a junior, I was a freshman, I was at his place and again, watching a movie just escalated, very quickly. I don't even think we were ten minutes in." Dani said.
"Again, it was his idea, I just went along with it. I wanted to at the time, otherwise I wouldn't have. I was fifteen but I knew what I wanted." She said nodding, "But really, it sucked." Dani said. Santana chuckled slightly, Dani shrugged, "No it did, seriously, it sucked. It was his first time, too and..." Dani screwed her face up slightly and shook her head, "Not the best experience, I honestly wish my first time ever had been with Sarah." She shrugged, "So anyway, that's my story, what's yours?"
"I was in freshman year, too. And it was with Puck." Santana said.
Dani's eyes widened, "Noah Puckerman?" She said, "Seriously?"
Santana nodded her head, "Yes seriously. We both kind of just wanted to get it over with, we weren't even together." She explained, "Boredom is a terrible thing." She explained, "We did it a hell of a lot actually." She said, "There were other guys, a lot actually, but Puck was definitely the most frequent."
Dani nodded her head. "Fair enough. Okay I've got one... So we've had the firsts, but what's your number?" Dani asked.
Santana turned her mouth down slightly and said, "You first."
"I've been first every time. I asked the question, you should be first." Dani argued, Santana shook her head slowly. Dani sighed and said, "Fine." She stayed quiet for a while, as she ticked off the names in her head, "Four." She said.
"Four?"
Dani nodded her head, "Yes, Max, Nathan, Sarah and Anna."
"I'm guessing Anna is the Carmel school girl?" Santana asked.
"Yeah, and the most recent... We only broke up in May." Dani said with a slight shrug.
"Is that why you were so sympathetic of me when I told you about Britt?" She asked, "Because of how recent it was for you?"
Dani nodded slightly, "In a way." She said, "But also, I did just want to make sure you were okay... You see someone that you sort of know crying it's a natural instinct to ask what's wrong."
"I won't lie, had I seen you crying in May, I don't think I would have asked." Santana said, "I probably wouldn't have even cared." I would now obviously, seriously if anyone hurts you now, I will go all Lima Heights on their ass!
Dani turned her mouth down slightly and sighed, "Anyway, it's your turn now. What's your number?"
"I kind of don't want to say." Santana said, "It's more than yours."
"So?" Dani said, "Just tell me." Santana shook her head slightly. "Okay then, a ball park?"
Santana sighed, "More than four, but less than a ball park, put it that way."
"I'm not gonna judge you... Whether you have slept with two people, two hundred people, or two hundred thousand people... No wait, I'd judge the last one, I mean, that's impressive as hell if you have." Dani chuckled. Santana shook her head, "San for god's sake, tell me."
"You've heard the rumours, right?" Santana asked, Dani nodded her head slowly, "Well they're right." Santana said, "What people are saying about the amount of people that I have been with is one hundred percent true." Dani could detect a small amount of shame in Santana's tone.
Dani laced her fingers together with Santana's and burrowed her head into the other girl's neck, "And?" Dani said, "I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of." She said, truthfully, she didn't. She never had. Had the rumours about Santana shocked her at first? Yes. But never once had she judged the girl for the amount of people she had supposedly been with.
"You don't?" She said. Dani shook her head; "You see nothing wrong with my number being in the double digits?"
Dani shook her head again, causing a small smile to spread across Santana's lips. "No." She said, "You didn't judge me for my tiny four, and I'm not going to judge you on yours"
"Well you'd be one of the first."
Dani shrugged, "I don't really think that anyone should judge anyone else for something like that, my number is kind of small for a reason, so you must have a reason for yours being that high, and whatever reason that is, it's a valid one and no one should or really can judge you for it."
"Okay my turn to ask a question..."
"Can we move away from the sex part of it now, please?" Dani asked.
"I guess, but it is kind of fun."
"It's not fun, a lot of it has actually been pretty deep conversations, and then you just went all… whatever that was on me, really San, you can't call that fun, so can we please move on?"
"Okay fine, for you, I'll move away from these types of questions."
"Thanks, bestie." Dani replied in a goofy voice.
"You're a nerd." Santana said chuckling, with her free hand she started to play with Dani's hair "Okay so... How old were you when you had your first kiss, see not a sex question." Santana said.
"Fine I'll let you have it." Dani said, she thought back through out the years trying to pin point when her first kiss was, "Oh easy, I was thirteen." Dani said, "Yeah I was thirteen so in middle school. And it was at Kristen Jones's thirteenth birthday party spin the bottle. Just after you had spilled a full cup of grape juice on the cream rug in the living room and I helped you hide the stain." Dani said smiling.
"Oh yeah I remember that." Santana said, "Wow." She said, "I hadn't thought about that in years." She started laughing.
"See. We didn't always hate each other." Dani said, "I've helped you quite a lot."
Santana smiled, "Have you always just been this nice?"
Dani nodded, "Yeah it's the way my momma raised me." She smiled, "When was your first kiss."
"The same day as yours." Santana said, "Because of that stupid spin the bottle game." She screwed up her face, "I can't believe I ever kissed, Jason Brown." Santana lets out a mock gag.
"Oh, I kissed..." Dani's mind went completely blank as she tried to remember the name of the boy she shared her first kiss with. "I have no idea what his name was. I can't remember." She said. "I think he moved away."
"It was probably you and your kiss." Santana deadpanned.
Dani playfully pinched Santana's thigh and smiled, "Okay, I wanna ask another question now." She said.
"Okay... Make it an interesting one though."
"I will..." Dani said she thought for a moment, "The weirdest place you've ever done it?"
"I thought you wanted to move away from those types of questions?"
Dani shrugged, "I changed my mind, I wanted to ask this one, so I did." She said, "You've made me uncomfortable and now it's my turn." Dani said.
"You do realise you've got to answer this too though, right?" Santana asked Dani nodded her head. "Okay… weirdest place, okay so it was with Puck and we did it in the men's room at Breadstix." Santana said. "We both wanted the date to be over, and that was the only way we knew how to end a date, so we did quick in the bathroom, and then left… I don't even think we paid." She sighed, "So it's not really a weird place as such, but other than it has been pretty basic stuff." Dani nodded her head slowly, "So what about you?"
Dani turned her mouth down, "That would have to be… the foot of the bed." She said.
"Seriously?"
Dani chuckled and shook her head, "No." She said, "Erm, no I'm gonna say Anna's kitchen while her mom was out… we'd been baking some stuff and whatever it was we were baking had a long cooking time, so she kind of backed me up against one of the kitchen counters, we started to make out, she lifted me so I was kind of sitting on the counter top and… you know how the rest goes."
"Yes I do." Santana said smiling slightly.
They carried on their question game for the next hour or so, they didn't know which fell a sleep first, or even when the conversation had ended, all they knew was that they fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms.
The songs used in this Chapter are Bubble Wrap by McFly and Misguided Ghosts by Paramore
So later update than I had planned, but some shit happened, and then loads of family were visiting what with it being Christmas and all that jazz, and then a bit more shit happened, so it's later than I wanted it to be. And it's also another really long chapter, but I warn you now, they'll probably just keep getting longer the closer that the girls get.
I have a feeling that a few of you are probably getting bored with this now, y'know waiting for the romance, but don't worry, it isn't too far away now; I've had it mapped out in my head for a while, they way I want it to happen and that specific chapter has pretty much been written since I first started writing this story- I've known what I want to happen there since day one!
So after that ridiculously long note, I would like to say another huge thank you to those of you who have read and reviewed this story, I really appreciate it, and as always a big thank you to anyone who has added this story to their alerts and or favourites.
P.S; to the readers that celebrate Christmas, I hope you all have had a very merry Christmas, and I hope you all got all of the lovely things you deserve :)