Holy shit you guys. We are alive. Ha. So sorry for the long ass wait, (again it's my fault, it usually is ;) )but we hope it's worth it. Really you guys are the best readers a fanfic writer could hope for. *wipes a single gay tear*
Who'd thought a slow burn could be this slow, aye?
Again, thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoy
-DementedPanda
Thanksgiving this year falls on a Thursday and most colleges turn the holiday into a long weekend for the students. This is particularly good news for the Ex McKinley Glee club kids who have promised to return to Lima for the holidays. It means they actually have days to spend together to catch up as well as visit their friends who are still seniors in WMHS.
It doesn't really come as a surprise that Finn's the one who sent emails to the alumni about the holiday reunion. Although, half of the graduates don't know that Finn's the Glee Club's substitute teacher while Mr. Schue is away.
Only, Santana is quite suspicious of Finn's intentions. She's pretty sure he's got a favor to ask, like the last time she went to Lima. That giant man-baby is trying to be sneaky.
The email invitation clearly states to meet up at the auditorium, so it's the first place Quinn goes to when she arrives at the school.
On her way there, Puck is the first of her friends she sees in the hall. The boy kisses Quinn's cheek and gets a warm hug in return. They walk together to the auditorium while catching up on each other's lives post-graduation.
Puck has been attempting to pursue a career as a scriptwriter, ever since he found out that the pool cleaning business in California is a very competitive job.
So it turns out Puck is dumber than she gave him credit for. Wow, it's not as if there is an abundance of scriptwriters in Cali as well. Yea, he'd have little - if any - competition.
Aside from his minor flaw in assessment, Quinn can't really fathom his choice of career knowing that the boy can barely spell beyond 6th grade.
Their discussion then moves on and they talk about Shelby who's notified them that she and Beth have moved to New York, so they've agreed to visit her sometime next year. The thought is still bittersweet.
She's come to terms with Beth being raised by Shelby. Still, seeing her little girl again scares Quinn. What if she doesn't remember her own mom? What if Quinn decides that she wants her back again?
But it also makes Quinn excited. She thinks about Beth every day. She does want to be a part of her life.
The two of them walk into the backstage area of the auditorium and Quinn feels nostalgia rush through her as she remembers every single performance that has been carried out in this room. It feels like ages ago, when in reality, their graduation was barely six months ago.
Quinn's not sure why, but she steps onto the stage and starts singing. She misses how amazing it feels to express herself through songs and to perform in front of people.
She should be a little bit weirded out when she starts singing in the auditorium and suddenly one by one her friends show up and join her singing, however it has happened so many times in the past that Quinn just brushes it off. Besides, at least two Glee club members, Rachel and Santana, claim to be psychic. Although, that doesn't explain the impeccable timing of the band kids and Brad. Nor does it explain why the AV kids - apparently with an unlimited budget - keep decorating the stage for a single performance. Quinn has rarely seen them actually put on the decoration. When do they do it?
She's pulled out of her train of thought when Puck joins singing with her, and she reaches out her hand and they both sing together. Then Mike and Santana show up and the dark-skinned girl waves at Quinn, smiling.
Quinn automatically returns the wave, she's thrilled to see the other girl. They have been on several Skype calls since game night, but mostly it either consisted of them playing random online games or studying in silence.
Listening to Santana's voice - when the girl joins her in song - reminds Quinn of how beautiful the girl's voice is. It doesn't help that Santana is staring back at her as she sings effortlessly, making the temperature in Quinn's body rise and her cheeks warm.
Of course Quinn is happy when she sees Mercedes showing up too, even if she reacts a little delayed, it's simply that she momentarily loses sight of anything or anyone else in Santana's stare.
She has wondered a bit - well maybe not just a bit, Quinn actually thinks about it a lot - if something could ever happen between her and Santana.
When the Latina is doing the backup voice for Mercedes' part, Quinn can't help thinking, God, her voice is amazing.
"Home for the holidays, just like we promised", Quinn says after they are done singing their kumbaya's.
Before Finn gets the chance to make an emotional comment, Puck warns him and asks for a group hug. Santana steps forward first and not surprisingly hugs only Quinn and Puck. Quinn doesn't care even try to do an actual group hug and goes straight for Santana's waist, wrapping her arm around the other girl and holding her tight. I really do miss her.
The group decides to go to Breadstix to catch up with each other. The girls are with Quinn and the boys are with Puck, because they were the only two who used a car to McKinley.
Quinn is driving her old sedan and Santana sits shotgun. The whole drive to Breadstix, which doesn't take a long time, is basically filled with either Mercedes talking with Quinn or Mercedes talking with Santana.
The two ex-Cheerio co-captains are somehow still being a bit awkward with each other. Both are not quite sure yet on how to behave in each other's presence.
Quinn looks at the rear-view mirror to address Mercedes, "You seem happier. You must have been having a lot of good times in L.A."
"Well, turns out what people say about the west coast is true and surrounded by mostly nice people is actually good for my mental health."
"Hold up. Are you saying that we're not nice?", Santana asks.
"We all know it's better that I don't answer that question", Mercedes answers with a grin which is being returned by Santana's and Quinn's chuckles.
"Mercedes might change but I can't believe you're still driving this piece of junk, Quinn. It should be in the National Museum of American History already. Right beside the original script of declaration of independence", Santana pats the dashboard.
"The declaration of independence is in the National Archives Museum, Santana. Get your facts right", Quinn states flatly.
"Why should I when I have a Yalie as a friend", Santana pokes Quinn's cheek playfully before being swatted. The Latina doesn't miss the slight smirk on Quinn's face.
"You both definitely haven't changed", Mercedes chuckling on the back seat.
…
The group of alumni are finally at Breadstix, seated in one of their big booths, finishing their dinners.
"Has anybody heard from Rachel or Kurt?" Santana asks, aware that Quinn is one most likely to respond. Although she's mistaken. Finn quickly answers with a brief, "No".
Mike then reveals that Blaine has been trying to text Kurt with no replies.
"Well, Rachel emails me. She said she's not really sure what to do for holidays yet. I'm sorry for what went down with the two of you", Quinn says, addressing Finn, who replies that their break-up is for the best. Quinn cannot agree more.
"Well, I think that it's sweet that you and Rachel are keeping in touch, Quinn." Mercedes suddenly gives Quinn a knowing smirk. Santana is the only one that catches the look and wonders if Mercedes knows something she doesn't. Mercedes of course doesn't know anything about Quinn's old high school crush for Rachel, but she is sure that for whatever reason, the ex-leader of celibacy club had make an actual effort to be friends with the annoying diva.
"Well, she basically emails me every other week to remind me that I haven't used the train ticket she gave me. I'm just, I'm trying to keep straight A's and I got tapped to be in the only female secret society at Yale. Former members; Hillary Clinton, Jennifer Beals..", Quinn brags.
If there is a thing as rolling your eyes without actually rolling them, Santana's doing it right now. She watches Quinn, seeing the old insecure Fabray again who needs to lie and show off in front of other people.
First of all, it wasn't Rachel who gave Quinn the train ticket, it was the other way around. Santana remembers that Quinn told her.
Second, there Quinn goes again about the secret society. How secret it can be if she keeps talking about it?
Santana can't help but get annoyed at the fake Quinn she's seeing sitting across from her. She knows the girl is already getting everything she wants and yet it seems like it's never enough nor does it ever seem to make her truly happy with herself.
Quinn doesn't behave like this with the Latina, not in the past few months they've been Skyping. She's toned down. Dropped the act, at least most of it.
Quinn catches Santana's eye and knows that the other singer is bothered.
Puck then drops his ice tea to Quinn's glass of water as some sort of a "gift" while congratulating her, "You go, girl" and makes everyone laughs. Santana can't help but join the others laughing.
"Well I for one would like to talk about everybody that is here. I've a favor to ask", Finn says once everyone stop laughing.
Ah there it is, Santana thinks as Finn starts talking about the Glee club.
…
The next day, everyone who is - or was - a Glee kid is in the choir room. The graduates are either sitting or standing in front of the room, facing the current Glee kids.
Santana chooses to sit on the piano, right beside Quinn. She sees Brittany and offers the blonde a smile.
Finn then speaks out to the whole room, saying that the alumni of the Glee club are legends, and even goes as far as suggesting that any one of them could be the president of United States someday, which understandably causes some confusion among the kids.
Then he explains that the graduates are willing to help the Glee club as mentors to prepare the sectionals performances.
Finn pairs up the old glee kids with the new based on how who he thinks can relate to one another best:
The Puckermans are paired up because duh, he knows that they've been bonding.
Kitty is with Quinn because Finn actually got a threat from Kitty after the Cheerios found out about his plan. He cringes when he sees Kitty being too excited and gives Quinn a surprise hug.
Mike is with Ryder.
Unique with Mercedes.
And finally Marley is paired with Santana (Finn actually don't think they can relate but they were the only pair left).
Quinn intercepts Finn's explanation about mentoring by mentioning that she'll even help about birth control. That's when Kitty laughs too excitedly, "You're so funny and self-deprecating. We're so much alike."
Quinn tries - hard - to contain an expression of horror from showing on her face. This girl is obviously a fan of hers and she wants to keep it that way, even though she feels a little bit startled.
"Wanky", Santana chimes in - looking at Kitty and smiling creepily. Santana thought the Kitty she saw in the Left Behind club was the full extent of mini-Quinn's craziness, but seeing the short Cheerio practically hump Quinn's leg, the Latina realizes that she needs to raise the bar higher on her crazy meter.
"Quinn, I know you get off on this "being worshipped" thing but she's underage and I don't want you to become the next Jimmy Savile", Santana whispers to Quinn.
Quinn rolls her eyes before countering, "You want to switch kids? I know you prefer blondes."
Santana mock gasps, "Quinn Fabray! I'm flattered that you notice."
Both of girls hold back their laughter while trying to keep up with Finn's prattle.
Finn finally decides to separate the girls' and boys' practices, because the boys are more clueless while the girls are faster in learning the dance movements. So he and the other boys went to the auditorium and the girls stay in the choir room for extra mentoring.
Santana and Quinn drag a few chairs, placing them in front of the new kids, facing them. Brittany joins them in the middle with her own chair.
"I just want to say that other than the two fabulous New Direction's stars Kurt and Mercedes, I'm always impressed of how classy the three of you every time you all are on stage", Unique starts.
"Thank you. We know", Santana smiles at her.
"Along with being beautiful, the three of us are national championship goddesses", Brittany adds, half sitting on the chair's back.
"Mhm. We are the winners. Which is why Finn has asked us to come and shower you with the inspiration that is the unholy trinity", Santana makes a hand gesture, presenting the name of three of them, given by the WMHS students. Brittany copies Santana's hand gesture while Quinn nods in agreement.
"Santana, Brittany and I knew each other so well that I could tell by the slightest quiver of Santana's upper lip which way we were gonna move. Whether our hips were gonna shake or shimmy", Quinn explains.
Marley raises her eyebrows on the mention of Santana's lip and hip. Kitty on the other hand is nodding eagerly, recognizing it as one of Sue's tricks for the Cheerios to keep the squad as a collective when performing.
"Now, you girls have to be tight up there. Okay? The judges love the feminine quality and The Warblers just don't have it", Santana doesn't waste a second before adding.
"It's about being individuals. You know we all different, but it's also about synchronicity", Quinn finishes with a smile.
"Can you give us an example?", Marley speaks up, wanting to see exactly what are these graduates talking about. The other kids look pretty excited with Marley's idea.
"It's been a few months but I'm sure the three of us could put together something on the fly", Quinn looks at Santana and raises her eyebrow trying to send a message while Santana looking back is feeling a little bit confused. She doesn't remember they have prepared anything.
The three of them get up from the chair and Brittany mouthes the name of the song to Quinn and Santana in excitement. The shorter blonde confirms it with a nod and a smile, and Santana finally understands. Quinn is trying to make it look like they are able to put up an impromptu performance. It's the Glee kids, they're stupid enough to believe this.
Quinn walks to the band and asks them to play the arrangement of "Come see about me" by The Supremes. The number is something that they have prepared back when they auditioned for Glee club. It was an alternative number in case Mr. Schue hadn't been impressed with their "Say a Little Prayer" number, which would have been ridiculous. But the new kids don't need to know that. It's just adding the effect of how awesome the Unholy Trinity are.
The three of them are about to stand in position when Santana whispers To Quinn, "I'm not sure I remember all of the dance moves."
Quinn gives her a side glance and whispers back, "I'm not either. But like I said, you can watch my hip and I'll watch your lips and I'm sure we both can cover the whole routine smoothly."
Quinn smiles at Santana and something about Quinn's sentence makes it feel a bit like the blonde's flirting, but Santana's not really sure. She's been hanging out with Elaine too much.
They definitely don't have to worry about Brittany because once the girl memorizes a dance move, it will never be forgotten.
The unholy trinity does the number pretty smoothly for something they haven't practiced for years. Santana does forget several little parts and follows Quinn's suggestion on watching her hip. Though it does help to read each other's movements, Quinn's hip were more of a distraction than a cue for the next move.
Similar thing happens to Quinn on the last part of the number. When she sing the last "I love you only" line and automatically moves her head to look at Santana, she catches the other girl's eye and down to her lips which results in her almost forgetting her next line. Thankfully she gathers herself quickly and remembers that she only has to repeat the title of the song and ended it with a long "Ooh". Quinn is painfully aware of how annoyingly hot her friend is when she dances and sometimes it just catches her off guard.
Santana at the same time catches Quinn's eye movement and feels a bit thrown off herself with the girl's hazel eyes, resulting in the Latina forgetting the last part where she is suppose to hold on Quinn's upper arm.
Of course no one notices and gives them excited claps when they finished the number.
...
Later that day, after hours of dance rehearsals, Santana steps back into choir room, where Quinn just finished giving Kitty some suggestions.
"That bitch is pure evil", Santana spits out just as the tiny blonde exits the room, and cutting straight to the chase as the Latina stands right across from Quinn by the piano.
"I think she's sweet", Quinn states defensively. Obviously the blonde will defend Kitty after a whole day of hearing the Cheerio praise her non-stop.
"Really? Then why is she giving my girl laxatives?", Santana challenges Quinn. Marley had confessed to Santana that Kitty has been giving her laxatives.
"Your pretty little liar gave them to her. I can sense it thanks to my psychic Mexican third eye", Santana points to her forehead where the third eye supposedly is.
"See, this is what my Psych professor calls projecting. You're projecting Kitty on to me", Quinn obnoxiously says, attempting to lecture her friend while she unconsciously drags her fingers along the surface of the piano. The movement of Quinn's fingers sliding over the piano catches Santana's eye. The Latina's first thought briefly contemplates what else Quinn's fingers are capable of, before she realizes that Quinn hasn't stopped yammering and Santana needs to listen before she's caught staring.
"-It's really time to get over this", Quinn looks to the side just to emphasize how bored she is with their arguments.
"Get over what?", Santana asks confusedly as she folds her arms on her chest.
"You being jealous of me", Quinn answers with a mocking hushed voice as if it's an embarrassing truth.
"And why would I be jealous of you? And please don't tell me it's because you're in some lame secret Nazi sorority."
"Look, homecoming weekend I went to Jodie Foster's clambake and that professor I was talking about, well, he's thirty five, smoke a pipe. Well, he's divorcing his wife who hasn't touched him for three years. I'm dating him." Quinn doesn't know why she needs to lie about her relationship with Alex or the stupid clambake meeting, but at the moment she feels like they are the only other things outside the secret society or her academic achievement that she can brag about.
At first Santana is confused with the Jodie Foster part, because she does recall that the woman is a lesbian and it needs a couple of seconds for her to understand that it's Quinn showing off again about something related to the brunette's sexuality. Santana could have laughed at the idiocy of it all, but she is far too angry.
"Twitter update! Quinn is all excited about another guy defining her life."
Quinn is actually offended with Santana's remark, but she manages to show composure. She moves forward and rests her arms on the piano, making a challenging pose at Santana. She knows by the scowl on Santana's face, she has pushed a button and even more sure that her best friend is in fact still jealous of her life.
"And what do you excited about? Shaking pom-poms in Kentucky? I think you want everybody to think you're a badass, but really you're just a scared little girl with low self-esteem who's too frightened to chase her dreams", Quinn's being ruthless and hitting Santana right where it hurts.
Santana's furious with Quinn's comeback, despite recognizing that the girl is actually saying the truth. The bitch is mocking Santana's own insecurities, the ones' she's been fighting for months.
So the Latina retorts, with the best way she knows how, more insults. A low blow that she knows always shakes Quinn up, "Did Professor Patches teach you that one in between quickies on his office couch? Does he get so turned on by teen moms who barely visit their kid?"
There was only a second gap between Santana seeing Quinn's face changes and the blonde's hand swinging to the point she feels a sting on her left cheek. Automatically, she is slapping Quinn back just as hard. She's ready for whatever Quinn will throw at her when Brittany shows up at the door and asks what they are doing.
They both probably could have resume to a more dramatic physical fight if Brittany hadn't been standing there, judging them with a cautious look. The situation feels incredibly Déjà vu.
"Nothing. Nothing at all", Quinn takes a deep breath to control herself and fixes her hair before walking out of the room a bit wobbly. She needs to get out of there. She hates it when Santana can see right through her facade and makes her lose control.
Santana would be lying if she wasn't a little bit turned on from the fight. "Quinn always was a genius slapper", she says it to herself as she touches the stinging spot on her cheek.
Brittany walks closer to Santana. "Did you both fight again?"
"Nothing new, Brit."
Brittany touches Santana's cheek and can still feel the warmth left by the slap. "Does it always have to be resolved with violence?, She asks.
"What is?"
"Your tension."
"What tension", Santana looks at her confused.
"I'm worried the more Quinn hits your head, the slower your brain works."
...
Santana finds Quinn sitting on the bleachers inside the gym hall and walks towards her. Even with all of their arguments she still feels compelled to hang out with her friend. Fighting is just a part of their friendship. She then sits right beside the blonde and the two spend some time in silence, watching the athletes practice.
"My relationship with Alex, the professor, was over weeks ago. I don't know why I even lied about it", Quinn suddenly speaks up.
There is another moment of silence, before Santana finally responds, "I am being a chicken right now. I do want to let go the scholarship and find something I'm happy doing."
Both knows their admittances are as close as an apology they'll get from each other, and it's enough for now.
The mood of between them changes and another silence moment appears, though this one is comfortable.
Santana eyes Quinn and watches her play with her phone. She grabs it from the blonde's hands, to Quinn's surprise, and opens her inbox, reading some of the messages from Alex.
"Do you not watch Pretty Little Liars? Never ever date someone with name started with the letter "A". Look how creepy the texts are with the signature; "Thinking of you - A", Santana shudders at the thought.
Quinn frowns at Santana incredulously, before snatching her phone back. That's the second time Santana mentions Pretty Little Liars today.
"You're obsessed with the show."
"The lesbians in it are quite hot", Santana shrugs, with a smirk on her lips.
Quinn quirks her head at the brunette, smiling as she says, "Happy Thanksgiving, Stripper."
Santana grins widely, looking back at the other girl, "Happy Thanksgiving, Bitch."