"Lopez! Get up! We're going to be late!"
Groaning to herself, Santana felt herself stirring with a low groan, pushing her upper body off her bed before her door burst open emitting a red-headed whirlwind. The woman in question went straight to the Latina's closet, pulling out a gear bag and stuffing changes of clothes in it like it was the end of the world.
"Dammit, Lopez! Get your ass out of bed, or we'll miss the bus," she snapped, reaching over to jerk the covers off the brunette, "You forgot your damn alarm again!"
"Shit," Santana groaned as she hoisted herself out of the bed quickly, pulling on clothes in the same hurry the redhead was exhibiting, "They won't leave without us…I think. Fuck, I wanted to get a coffee, Bre."
"Guess you should have thought of that before chasing that fine tail at the Sigma party last night," Bre said, "Speaking of…did you strike out?"
"Hell no, I didn't strike out. I have a date on Friday," the brunette said as she bent down to pick up her bat bag and duffel before grabbing Bre's arm, "Let's go! We have a game to get to…and I might still be able to get my coffee. Can't have me slacking on the field."
It wasn't a new sight to see the redhead and the brunette sprinting from the dorms, in an obvious rush. Santana was notorious for not setting alarms, and Bre wasn't much better with getting up early enough to get Santana there on time as well. So when they ducked into the Starbucks, they only had to pay before Santana's usual coffee order was being pressed into her hand and they were back out the door at a sprint to make it to the bus in time.
See, after that day at the lockers, the Lopez family moved to New York and Santana was put through boarding school. She graduated at the top of her class and was accepted into a multitude of colleges on both athletic and academic scholarships. But the real kicker, she'd dropped cheerleading and glee club when she transferred, and instead she'd picked up softball and the guitar. It was the lesbian thing to do, right? All lesbian's played golf or softball, and golf wasn't nearly as exciting.
So Santana had gotten herself a full-ride at UCLA, pre-med, and a spot on the softball team as well. To say her parents were proud, her father doubly so since she was following in his footsteps and going into medicine. Even if it was surgery, but he could ignore the fact that she would be one of those hotshots just because he was proud of his daughter for what she'd done with her life after getting utterly destroyed by Brittany.
Though, both of the elder Lopez's could tell that she was still deeply troubled by that rejection, even if she'd worked so hard to turn everything around and move on. Hell, she didn't even know what had become of any of her old friends from McKinley. She'd never once looked back, having bottled up the pain and ignored it, never intending to let it get to her again.
So when she'd been roomed with Bre her freshman year, things had been rocky at first before their first day of practice, where they'd worked seamlessly together and became inseparable since. Brianna, who was a redhead from North Carolina on an athletic scholarship, preferred to be known as Bre or Breezy. In fact, Santana wasn't sure if anyone on the team even knew her name for sure; the only reason she knew it was Brianna was because she remembered the surprise parent visit…which coincidentally ensured that she'd never sleep naked again, considering those people had no sense of modesty.
As they reached the bus, Santana was the first to bolt up the stairs in a thunder of steps, closely followed by Bre as she gave the coach a crooked grin.
"Lopez! Thatcher! You're late!"
"Sorry coach, won't happen again," Santana said in her usual line as she sank into her seat near the back, Bre dropping into the one beside her as one of their teammates knelt up to look back at them.
"You know…she'll leave without you two one of these days."
"Awe, is that concern I hear from your mouth, Cash," Santana mocked, reaching up to muss the black-girls braids playfully, "I feel so warm and fuzzy inside."
"Whatever, Satan," the other woman said with an amused smile, swatting her hand away, "Just please don't get left. I don't feel like trying to win a game without our star shortstop. And whatever it is Bre thinks she does."
Chortles were heard all around as the team poked and teased at the redhead who made a show of acting offended.
"It's alright, Breezy. I love you, even if Cash doesn't," Santana said, leaning in and making a kissing face at her, only to be stopped with a hand in her face and a noise of disgust.
"Ace, you are one hot piece of ass, I'll give you that much. But I swear to God, if you kiss me, I will hurt you," Bre said with a grin, keeping Santana at arms reach, "Damn predatory lesbians. Can't get you around any females or you just try to get your 'mack' on."
Heaving a mock-disappointed sigh, Santana slumped back with a pout, staring at the redhead.
"Ouch. My heart is wounded again. Why must you be so cruel to me, Bre? I only want to love you," Santana said much to the amusement of the other women.
"Because I don't play for your team, Lopez. I'm all about the D, not the V," Bre said matter of factly, making a point in what is an ongoing argument between the two, "You'll get over it. You have a date on Friday. And if I remember right, that blonde is even hotter than you."
"What? Lopez has a date," Cash said, peeking around the seat again as other faces joined in looking at the Latina, "With who?"
"You guys know that pretty blonde she was all over at the Sigma party..."
"No way! Way out of your league, Lopez. And I thought she was straight," Cash said, looking at Santana in confusion.
"It's college, Cash-baby. Everyone experiments in college. And hell, maybe she's just gay for me, but either way, I have a date," Santana said dryly, rolling her eyes at her teammates, "You guys are a bunch of gossip whores, you know."
"But I don't understand…I've been trying to get her for ages," Cash muttered under her breath, "Dammit, Lopez."
"Hide yo' daughters, hide yo' wives," Bre chirped in amusement as Santana tipped her seat back with a small chuckle of her own, putting her earbuds into her ears to try and get some more sleep on the ride to the airport.
They'd been accepted to play in an East Coast collegiate tournament, and Santana had been greatly looking forward to the trip and tournament since it had been announced months ago. Not to mention, her parents had promised to be there, and she'd not seen them in months. Months of just phone calls to cope with not seeing the people that had uprooted their lives just for her. Don't get her wrong, she appreciated the move to New York all those years ago, but she wasn't at all deluded into thinking it was for anything other than to try and make her less distraught than she had been that one day after pouring her heart out to Bri-her. She'd be lying if she said she'd never even thought about her since that day, but the blue-eyed woman had been on her mind at least every day since then, bringing with her memory the pain from that day as well.
Which was why her having a date was such a big deal. Santana wasn't well known for having legitimate relationships anymore. She was more likely to just have one night stands and short flings than to allow herself to slip into another position to be hurt. Not that she'd let the relationship with the Sigma Party Blonde progress very far; it was a fact that the entire team knew, but just didn't vocalize for Santana's benefit. They knew that she had history and commitment issues because of it, but they were all close enough at that point to just want to see the Latina happy.
"Santana. Hey, Ace. We're here," Bre said, shaking the brunette awake after what felt like mere seconds, "Time to catch the plane, then you can go back to snoring."
"I don't snore," Santana snapped reflexively, standing up regardless as she picked up her bags from the aisle where they'd been tossed by Cash.
"She's right, Bre...Ace definitely drools," Cash added from her spot in the back, resulting in Santana taking a step close and landing a sharp slap right to her ass, "Ouch! Motherfucker!"
"You had that one coming, bitch," Santana snarked, giving a smirk as she put her shades on her face, "You're just lucky I didn't get you again."
Chuckling to herself, Santana disembarked the bus, looking around in the terminal where they had parked to unload, looking around slowly with a small frown, heaving a soft sigh before turning to grab the team duffel pulled out from beneath the bus containing all the helmets, draping it over her shoulder and stepping out of the way for someone else to grab some more gear.
She'd promised the team a night on the town, since they were going to be playing in New York. And her daddy had gotten a hell of a deal on rooms in Manhattan, relatively near their condo, so she'd definitely be in her old stomping grounds. But as with every second since she fled the hallways of William McKinley High School, she had that gnawing fear that she would run into one of the old members of the glee club. She'd vanished without even a goodbye, and the last thing she could do was face her past at this particular moment in time.
Maybe it would be better.
Right?
A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and favorited/followed this story. I'd hoped to have had this up much sooner than I'd gotten, but alas, work and school do not allow for so much. Hopefully the next one will be much quicker. And sorry that this didn't have a lot of stuff going on, I wanted to give everyone an idea what Santana has been up to and set the stage for the story.