Quinn smiled as the door opened "Hello Mrs. Chang, I'm Quinn Fabray, Mike and I are going to do our math homework together."
"Oh, yes, he mentioned that. He is set up in the dining room, more space for the two of you." She gestured Quinn to follow her. Seeing the shoe rack by the front door Quinn slipped off her shoes, Mrs. Chang gave her a smile and nod before leading the way. "Michael, Quinn is here."
"Thank you." Standing up from the table Mike pulled out the chair next to him.
Putting her books on the table with his she sat down letting him push her chair in. "Thank you."
Waiting for his mother to leave Mike asked "You don't really need help do you?" giving a small smile Quinn squeezed his hand before opening her book to the matching page, both of them had gotten most of their homework finished in class. Glancing over Mike saw all her answers matched his.
Mrs. Chang checked in on them thirty minutes later, they were still quietly doing their homework, they had switched to history, it looked like Spainish was the only thing left. Just as quiet as they were Mrs. Chang switched out their empty water bottles and set a plate of sugar cookies in front of them receiving a hushed "Thank you." from both of them.
It wasn't until she heard them laughing that Mrs. Chang peaked in on them again, they were putting away their books and talking about their Spanish teacher. "I truly wonder how many sweater vests he has."
Mike chuckled "I've never seen him in the same one twice."
"Are we all done?" Mrs. Chang asked surprised.
Quinn nodded smiling "Homework goes so much faster when I work with someone on my level." homework with Santana and Brittany took forever, Santana was smart but wasn't about perfection and Brittany struggled with everything but Spanish.
"It was fun." Mike nodded, Tina being younger than him, when they did homework he spent a good deal of the time explaining her homework to her because he'd learned it the year before. He loved her but homework took forever when they were together. "San says she'll double check our Spanish homework."
Mrs. Chang remembered Santana, she was always over with Brittany and Matt, Brittany was a sweet girl. "How are Brittany and Santana?"
"Cheerios and Spanish are great." Mike answered "Brittany has a tutor for her other classes."
"Santana misses Matt." Quinn added.
"He was a nice young man, very respectful." Mrs. Chang nodded. "It was nice seeing you again Quinn." seeing the confusion on Quinn's face Mrs. Chang reminded her "You're a Cheerio like Brittany and Santana, I've seen you at the games."
Quinn chuckled "Oh."
"I will leave you to your good byes." Mrs. Chang gave a nod before leaving the room.
Quinn waited a moment before saying "I just wanted to check on you after today, if it helps any Tina was giving me some very evil looks when I touched your shoulder and kissed your cheek."
"Thanks Quinn, I mean...it was just so..."
"Sucky?" Quinn offered.
"Yea," Mike nodded "It sucked seeing her that excited to see him, I haven't see her smile so much since camp." he admitted.
"Well if you don't mind me helping out I'll remind her just how much she loves you." Quinn smiled.
Mike chuckled "Thanks." he gave her a hug.
Tina beamed at Mike as he stepped out of the car, "Good morning." he smiled back.
"I can't wait to beat Carmel!" Tina squealed running to the car.
"Do you want to get lunch when practice is over?" Mike asked opening the car door for her.
"I can't I'm getting lunch with Jason." Tina chirped ducking into the car.
"Oh." heartbroken Mike closed the door before walking to his side, giving a inhale and then exhale he slipped into the car. Looking down at the steering wheel Mike started the car saying "That's cool, Quinn and I were talking about studying more anyway, I'll just give her a call." Her eyebrow arching at the last statement Tina said nothing.
Practice went as expected, "Next practice, same time, same place." their advisor pointed back at the auditorium.
Wheeling Artie to his mother's waiting car Mike smiled when the younger boy said. "We got this, nothing can stop us now."
"We got this." Mike agreed "If you want to study more, let me know, I'll come over."
"Okay." Artie nodded "Hi Mom."
"Hey Artie, hi Michael." Artie's mom waved to the duo.
"Hi Mrs. Abrams." Mike smiled.
Smiling at Jason she sipped her frappe before asking "So how did you end up at McKinley?"
"Transfer." he gave a shrug.
"Uh huh, is it anything like the reason you left halfway through junior high?" Tina asked remembering his temper.
"They were asking for it." he muttered before taking a bite of his sandwhich.
Shaking her head Tina remembered exactly how she first met Jason and Santana.
School sucked and she didn't want to come back, Tina's lower lip quivered, they pushed her and yanked the swing chain out of her hand taking the swings over. "Loser."
"You need to go back from where your Mommy bought you."
"They coulda picked a different color." the first boy sneered, laughing he asked. "Can you even see?"
Tina wasn't sure what was going on, first the boy was making fun of her for being Asian and next he was on his face on the ground with his friend landing right next him, "Deja de ser un bastardo o mi amigo te pateará el trasero." Tina looked up confused it wasn't Chinese or English. Smirking down at the boys with her hands on her hips was a little Latina the same size as Tina, standing behing the other girl (and about a head taller) was a grinning blonde boy. Growling at the two other boys as he stepped around the little Latina he quickly moved closer to the other little boys, scrambling to their feet they ran away as the blonde boy chased them. "You're new."
"I'm kindergarden."
"First grade, so's he." the Latina answered sitting in one of the swings before gesturing to the other one.
"Thank you." Tina sat in the swing next to her, neither of their feet could reach the ground. "I'm Tina." she said softly.
"Santana."
"Jason." the taller blonde boy grinned rejoining them. "Need a push?" he asked Tina.
"Okay." Tina nodded.
Moving behind both girls Jason pushed Santana's swing first then Tina's "They won't mess with you no more." Santana promised, then glared at Jason when he said.
"Any more." laughing Jason added "It doesn't work on me, you have to learn the right words."
"I know the right words in Spanish." Santana stuck out her tongue, Tina giggled.
Tina was excited to introduce her new 1st grade friends to her mom, they didn't even tease her because her mom was white, and after that day neither did anyone else.
Her phone vibrating Santana picked it up, confused because it was a message from Tina she opened it smiling at the photo she saw. A selfie of Jason and Tina with the text 'Hey Moe, Breadstix?' Santana chuckled before quickly tucking her phone away, but not quick enough, the blonde was frowning. Pulling the phone back out Santana poke the text so she could show Brittany.
"Just Tina with Jason."
"Where's Mike?" Brittany scowled at the picture.
"I didn't ask." Santana admitted.
Finding her phone Brittany texted Mike 'Are you with Tina?' Brittany held her phone bouncing a little while she waited. "Oh." Brittany looked down when her phone vibrated, it was a picture of him and Quinn smiling.
'Basketball with Quinn, taking a break from studying, do you want to come over?'
Brittany glanced at Santana, who was picking at an imaginary thread on her pants (Brittany'd seen her do it enough to know there was nothing on Santana's pants), patiently waiting, waiting for Brittany to put her phone down."Mike wants to know if we want to come over and study and play basketball."
"What do you want to do?" Santana asked carefully.
"Can we just stay here and watch movies?" Brittany asked cautiously, she knew if she pushed Santana too far the Latina would leave.
"Of course." Santana said relieved she didn't have to socialize with Quinn yet, she was still kinda mad at her.
Brittany grinned cuddling back with Santana, switching her phone to camera she handed it to Santana, leaning her head against Brittany's they grinned taking the picture. Giving Brittany her phone back Santana relaxed as the blonde sent the picture and text to Mike. 'Disney movies with San.'
It wasn't Mike that replied 'She's just afraid we'll kick your asses at basketball. Q.'
Brittany giggled before handing her phone to Santana "Oh hells no."
"Wanna go now?"
"Nope." Santana took the phone away from Brittany texting 'Kick her ass Boy Chang. S.' Pulling Brittany back with her Santana took a picture of them with her own phone before sending it to Tina 'Sorry Larry, Curly watching movies with Britt.'
Pushing play on the remote Brittany relaxed against Santana resting her head on Santana's boobs. Pulling the blanket from the back of the couch Santana let it fall where it wanted to partially covering her and Brittany, Brittany straightened it up a little before settling down. "Hey San?"
"Yea B?" Santana glanced down at the top of the blonde's head.
"How did you meet him?" Brittany asked quietly.
"I met him in kindergarden." Santana said softly "I spent a lot of time with my abulea and she only spoke Spanish so I knew more Spanish then English and I had a really thick accent so I didn't talk a lot." Santana smiled as Brittany took her hands, she was trying to comfort Santana without knowing why. "This first grader was making fun of me so I called him something and punched him, well I was small..."
"Still are." Brittany giggled playing with Santana's fingers.
Lightly chuckling Santana nodded, even though Brittany couldn't see her, admitting "True but now I know how to throw a punch, then I didn't, he pushed me down and Jason came to my rescue."
Her abulea had put her hair in a single braid with a tiny red bow at the bottom, Santana like red it was one of the first English words she'd learned, she glared at the little boy, he'd snagged the bow and was holding it above her head. "¡Devolvérsela!"
Laughing the boy dangled it closer before jerking it out of her reach again "My Daddy days you're what's wrong with this country."
Santana glared, she didn't understand what the boy was talking about, holding her hand out she demanded in a thick accent "Give it back!"
"Look she can talk." a second boy laughed.
"She sounds like the maid on tv." the first boy laughed.
That she understood, Santana glared growling "No me gusta."
"Go back where you came from." the first little boy shoved her. "Wet back."
"¡Estúpido gilipollas!" pulling her fist back she punched him in the chest, laughing he pushed her down.
Santana didn't know what was happening but the boy cried out and dropped her bow grabbing at the back of his head, snatching up her bow Santana quickly jumped to her feet moving just in time to see the second boy get hit in the face with a shoe. When the first boy fell to the ground, Santana did not know why he did but she pounced on him, pulling his hair and bitting him. It wasn't until she was being pulled off of him that she let go.
It was a grinning curly headed boy, he was bigger than both the other boys, grabbing his shoe from the ground he grabbed Santana's hand pulling her away from the two boys. Running they hid on the side of the building. Putting his shoe back on he grinned at Santana "I'm Jason."
"Santana." she said waiting for him to laugh.
"You have a cool accent." he smiled, "I just talk like this, it's kinda boring." Santana smiled putting the bow back at the end of her braid. "Um...can you help?" he gestured to his shoe.
Santana nodded, he wasn't making fun of her but that didn't mean she was going to talk. Sitting next to him she untied her own shoe before pointing at his "Bunny ears."
They were tying their shoes when a teacher found them. "Didn't you hear the bell?"
"My shoe untied." Jason pointed to his sloppily tied shoe. "Santana help-ted me." he grinned, his dimples on full display, he knew adults thought they were adorable.
"Helped." the teacher gently corrected. "Let's get you in your lines, do you know who your teachers are?" they both shook their heads "Do you remember where your backpack is?" she asked as they both stood up, they both nodded.
Thinking she wouldn't see him again Santana thank him "Gracias."
His eyes lit up, he knew that one."Welcome." with the teacher looking at them Jason explained "I found her bow."
"Oh." nodding the teacher followed them, Santana was surprised the tall boy stopped next to her and picked up a blue back pack. "So you both have Miss Adrian, well isn't that nice, you already have a friend in class."
Santana beamed, she knew they wouldn't pick on her as long as he was around, he grinned giving her a thumb's up before stepping in line behind her, he towered over the rest of the kindergardeners. "You sit by me, I help you, you help me."
"Deal." Santana nodded picking up her black backpack.
Tina smiled at her phone, a smiling Brittany and Santana "Santana's busy."
"Too busy for us?" Jason frowned.
"She's with Brittany." Tina held out her phone showing him the picture and text.
"I don't think she likes me, I think Mike's right, I think your Brittany friend hates me."
"She doesn't hate you...she just doesn't trust you...with Santana." Tina struggled to explain it, shaking her head she decided to go with a modified truth. "She thinks you're going to steal her girl."
"Wait... is Santana..."
"Best Friends." Tina shook her head, it didn't matter what she suspected she wasn't going to say it to Jason. "Santana protects Brittany, Brittany is kinda lost without her and Santana's just plain mean without Brittany."
"But what about you?"
"They pretty much left me alone, I just blended into the background, until I joined Glee." Tina shook her head "Then at least once a week I got slushied."
"But that's against the rules." Jason frowned.
"I'm dating Mike so they leave me alone now." Tina patted his bicep.
"You tell me if anyone messes with you."
"Promise, but you don't need to end up back in juvie, Puck's still there, we barely have enough people for Glee club." Tina sipped her coffee.
"You mentioned that before, what is it?"
"Show choir, sometimes we meet before school but mostly after school on Thursdays, wanna sing with us?" Tina smacked his arm when he burst out laughing. "Rude."
"I'm sorry," he fought back a smirk "it's just show choir? Seriously?"
"Yes, Santana's in it too, Brittany, Quinn and Mike." Tina rattled off the names of the people he'd met "So's Finn and we're trying to convince Sam and anyone else we can. Stop it." she chuckled smacking his arm when he raised his eyebrow "Monday morning, come to Glee with me, you can meet everyone. And remember they are my friends, most of them."
"Promise I'll be good." Jason kissed her cheek.