Chapter 28

May – Age 18

College Arrangements

Finn Hudson's high school life was coming to an end. They had four short weeks until graduation. While their move in date of August first seemed so far off, Finn was already on the phone with Bowling Green's housing office to make sure everything was set and ready to go. He and Santana made the conscious decision to move into the non-traditional family housing just off campus. The small rancher had two bedrooms, a study, living room, kitchen, one and a half baths and a laundry room. It took a lot of peace talks to get Santana's parents to agree. It came down to Carol Hudson. She had invited the Lopez's over for dinner one night

FLASHBACK

"I think they are being a bit irresponsible for going off half-cocked and moving in together," Mrs. Lopez said disdainfully.

"How are they being irresponsible?" Carol asked simply. When the other woman had no immediate answer, Carol continued. "They are deciding to live in the same house, share expenses – which based on their figures will be pretty minimal – as well as both taking an active role in raising my granddaughter. They have decided this with no influence from my husband or I."

"Well, it was irresponsible for your son to get a girl pregnant and then have the nerve to try and date my daughter," the Hispanic woman replied, seeming to be grasping at straws.

"While I agree that getting a girl pregnant in high school was not the best thing to happen," Carol began. "My son was responsible. Quinn was not. He manned up at the age of sixteen and decided not to abandon his child. He works two jobs and goes to school full time. Even this year with all of this AP classes, he is managing A's and high B's. He is working to provide everything his daughter needs. Now, tell me, how is that irresponsible?" The Lopez matriarch was again speechless. "Now, Santana, why don't you show your mother and father the PowerPoint you showed Burt and I."

"No problem," she replied. Both families filed out to the desk top computer in the living room to see the presentation. She covered their choices for colleges, costs, amenities breakdown, programs, and assistance programs. Their projected living expenses (even including her paying for her car and cellphone.) At the end of the slideshow she included all the money they had received from which scholarship and financial aid. They combined from both of them, had nearly enough money for a full year. "We plan on taking summer classes and finding part time jobs next year."

"When did you have time to do all this?" her father asked. "You're never home."

"I'm here, working on my future," she replied.

"This girl is scary good with numbers. Between her and Dave Karovsky, we were able to find out that one of my new employees helped himself to some extra money," Burt said. "She isn't here lying around. They do their school work, watch Char, and help us out a great deal."

"They have been supportive of Finn and I from day one, unlike some people," Santana scoffed.

"Come on Tana, we talked about this," Burt said, putting an arm around her.

"But they make me seem like I'm a no nothing freeloader and that you guys must hate me for stealing Finn."

"All that really matters is we know the truth," Burt replied. "Let them think what they want."

END FLASHBACK

They had the Lopez's not endorsing their plan, but not openly fighting them anymore. After Finn called the housing department, he called the financial aid department. He double check that they received all of his and Santana's FASFA information and all the scholarships they received. After that, he called his student advisor and filled them in on all the AP tests he had and talked over which classes he could opt out of. It turned out that he could skip intro to Spanish, intro to science classes, a writing class, a history class, and calculus. He essentially had a semester taken off right there. He figured he could have classes double up on attributes, and summer classes, he could graduate early.

Finn was elated when he told Santana. They could totally rock out college early. All of these thoughts were going a mile a minute, practically planning out their college years. Their classes depended on class availability, clinicals, and such, but he thought they could get their degrees in three years.

After calling all the college departments, Finn emailed his teachers to schedule his and Santana's AP exams. He did one last year and got a four. A four of five on the AP test would allow you to opt out of intro level classes. They would all take place the first week in June. He had 6 exams: Calculus, English, Spanish, Biology, Chemistry, and US History. He knew he would at least pass them, especially Spanish. Santana had been a good tutor. They were even teaching Charlotte some simple phrases.