Chapter 36 – New Beginnings

January – Age 19 – Freshman Year College

Talking to Ms. Pillsbury was just what Santana needed. It gave her the confidence to tackle her two winter classes: Organic Chemistry 1 and Fundamentals of Nursing and Assessment Across the Life Span. This semester was only 5 weeks, so the classes were intensive and every day. She had class from 830-2 and Finn took his classes from 230 to 8. He also had 2 classes: Social Work Research Methods and Sociology of Mental Illness. They were both very informative classes and really did help him understand more about Quinn and her behavior. This was something he also spoke to Ms. Pillsbury about.

They had gotten their grades back and both passed with flying colors. All A's, so their college careers could be started with a 4.0 GPA. It was a breath of fresh air, especially for Santana. She had quite a difficult professor for Organic Chemistry. Santana actually finished with the highest grade in the class at an 89, a B+. Bur she also got an A in her nursing class. Finn got an A and A- in his classes. This gave them a few days to themselves in between the winter semester and the spring semester. They just relaxed at their house, since they had been home for Christmas, they didn't feel the need to head back there just yet.

Finn's schedule got a bit more difficult while Santana got a bit of a break. She only had one lab this semester. But now they definitely had a routine down with Charlotte. It wasn't ideal, but they could put her in front of Sesame Street and get some work done.

"Hey Mom," Finn answered the phone the night before their semester began.

"Hi sweetie, how are you?" Carol asked excitedly.

"Just relaxing before we start school back up again tomorrow," he replied. "We've had a few days off to decompress."

"I forget, what times are you guys in classes?"

"Tana has the morning, until about 1:30, then I have class from 2 until 10."

"That's super late," Carol worried. "Is that going to be too much?"

"It's only 2 days a week, but someone needs to be here with Char."

"You guys aren't utilizing the day care?"

"We don't want to until we have to," Finn said. "We probably will have to next year for sure."

"She does need to socialize."

"We do take her to the park for a few hours on the weekends," Finn explained.

"Alright," Carol conceded. "So what kinds of classes are you two taking?"

"I'll let her tell you hers. But I'm taking: Diversity, Oppression, and Social Justice; Social Welfare Institutions; Social Psychology; Intermediate Spanish 2; and Statistics. Hey Tan, come tell mom what classes you're taking. She'll understand better than me," Finn chuckled, passing the phone to his girlfriend.

"Hey Carol! How are you?"

"I'm good. I just wanted to check in before we lost you guys to the semester."

"Yeah, gonna be a busy one."

"What are you taking?"

"I'm taking Nursing Agency, Adult Health Nursing, Intro to Psych, Intro to Soc, and Microbiology," Santana explained.

"Finn does seem like he has a harder semester this time. But at least you can borrow his old notes for the Psych and Soc classes."

"True. Totally," Santana agreed. "But Finn really enjoys it, so he doesn't mind too much."

"I'm glad he really likes this program," Carol said, and Santana could practically hear her joy through the phone. "I was quite worried about him when he started high school, and even some time after Char was born."

"Why?"

"Well, he wanted to play football in college," Carol explained. "He made starting quarterback as a freshman and he was good. But he was never super interested in school as a kid. I was afraid he would end up in a dead end job, hating his life like his father did."

"Oh," Santana replied. "So it wasn't like Finn tells us."

"Yes and no," Carol said." He hated life outside the army, but he couldn't really handle being in either. He turned to drugs to deal with his pain and anger."

"Wow."

"Finn knows most of the story," Carol said. "I guess one day I will tell him the rest."

"It will be the right time one day," Santana said sagely.

"I really didn't mean for this to be sad, honestly," Carol insisted. "I just wanted to wish you two the best of luck."

"Don't worry about it. We agree with the sentiment."