SORRY FOR THE WAIT. It's the end of term so all the teachers have simultaneously decided to give us tests and projects. YAY! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! :D she'll be awake REALLY SOON. DON'T PANIC.

Thanks to my BETA – Libraries- are -made -up -of -letters! You are pure AWEOME!

PLEASE REVIEW!

I want to continue reliving this happy memory, but something slowly pulls me back into a strange sort of reality. I smile to myself as I watch Quinn and Puck trudge through the streets of Lima, both carrying their uncomfortable sports bags, deep in an avid conversation. I wave goodbye to these simpler times and watch them slowly fade away into darkness, the words of Puck's song still swirling in my ears. Leaving behind happy memories and lost conversations as I enter a different type of dream world.

(Every breath
every hour has come to this)

My body fills with what seems to be lead and I can no longer see the shimmering blue of my fingers as I wave them about my face. I scowl internally; I guess this means I am no longer in a dream.

I frown to myself as my head spins dizzily. I feel extraordinary faint and light headed, which is strange because I felt fine just a few minutes ago… What was that dream again? A heavy mist clouds my mind and my brain churns itself into a foggy confusion. My tongue is heavy in my mouth and the metallic taste of blood is made dimly aware by my senses, as I seem to fall to earth. My head is buzzing and my eyes are blindingly sore, but my ears seem to be working fine, as I can still hear Puck singing softly beside me.

(One step closer)

In this twisting phrase of reality I find a sort of solace in his words.

Puck I think. Puck. There is finality in the way I say– I mean, think it. Like it belongs there… somehow I know somewhere deep inside myself – a place I try to ignore, that he does, and always had and will. My heart flutters at the mention of him, and when he hugs me from behind my breath catches in my throat. PuckandQuinn, the pairing that was always meant to be. I laugh at the irony in this thought. Meant to be? What was Beth then? What was Shelby? Lauren? Sam and Finn?

Well maybe, a tiny voice in my head exclaims, maybe that all those well…obstacles, were to test you? Maybe you two are supposed to be together. I am skeptical, but comforted by this thought I forget momentarily about my predicament.

(I have died everyday waiting for you)

Puck, my Puck. He's always been mine now that I think about it; it was always PuckandQuinn not ever just Puck or Quinn. Somehow, we always sort of belonged together, just like Santana and Brittney just belong together. No other way was really imaginable for both of us.

(Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
for a thousand years)

Half asleep I begin to remember how we met, all those years ago… the original unholy trinity, Lucy Q. Fabray, Santana Lopez and Brittney Pierce. I chuckle as I remember how we all first met:

She had always been a quiet girl, in the shadow of her older sister; silence had eloped her and become a part of her nature. On her first day of school this was soon to be evident. The first bell had not yet rung and the girl estimated that there was about half an hour left till school started. Lucy Quinn Fabray was 5 years old and it was her very first day of school, ever. She knew somewhere in her mind that these corridors would look childish and weak if she visited them in later years, but for now they were purely terrifying. Her footsteps clattered on the lino floor and she clutched her books to her chest tighter. No fearful emotions played on her face, she was the perfect exterior of calm, but on the inside her mind was near turmoil. Any other child left in her situation would panic, causing a scene and attracting the attention of the teachers. But Lucy Q. Fabray was never just normal. Yes, she had been disgruntled and then sad, when her mother had unceremoniously pointed her towards the entry of the school, handed her her backpack and promptly driven off, with a hurried and very much forced goodbye. Yes she had not asked for directions to the junior block and was now wandering around looking for signs, yes her father had forgotten that it was her first day, and left without a goodbye, and yes Lucy felt horrible, but even this didn't tear through her mask of composure. Any onlookers would observe that the girl was determinedly walking through the school with a purpose, with no doubt or hindrance on her mind. Could any words be more false? Thought the girl sadly, if one was to look, to look closely, to properly, really look; past the green eyes and straight blonde hair, past the features of perfection and golden mask, to actually look, Lucy was sure that they'd see her.

(I'll love you for a thousand more)

What would they see she pondered? A shy quiet girl in search for her parent's affection? No… she didn't think so, Lucy didn't really need their affection, yes she had been starved of it and their money had been used to buy her smiles, but she didn't long for it. She had no hole in her heart that her parents affection would fill, simply put because she didn't really want it. She cared for them and loved them fiercely but she knew, even at this young age, that her parents thought money brought everything. They were wrong of course, it couldn't buy their time, the smiles she used to wish for, it didn't buy the special bond they'd lost, but it did buy gifts. Every broken promise, every forgotten game, every memory they could have created together, a gift stood in its place.

(And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me)

It's strange, she thinks, she had found more solitude in the books she explored every night then she had ever found anywhere else, and her face had lit up and shone brighter than her parents could ever make It. Lucy loved books, she loved the characters and their wild adventures; their hopelessly tangled love lives that always seem to end out just right. She loved the feel of the pages beneath her hand, worn and timeless, she loved their smell and comfort. And most of all she loved the escape and hope she finds there.

(I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more)

Walking now, she has a set destination, changing her mind about looking for her class; she follows the clumsily painted handprints along the walls and the encouraging laminated pictures of books and arrows as she makes her way to the library. She settles down amongst piles of books and in the dim light she is sent off into a new world.

She is surrounded by quills and parchment and the light of the fire flickers over her page, she is sitting in a cushy arm chair, and legs curled up tight, working on her potions homework, in the Gryffindor common room. How she detests Snape, his cruel leering eyes and tantalizingly cold smile, for setting them this homework, 'the properties and uses of moonstone' ' she scowls and lifts her head up and looks out the window, enjoying the heat of the fire on her face. An owl hoots softly in the cold night air, and shouts and yells echo around the castle, in this magical world that she calls home she could never imagine it being completely silent. She casts aside her tasteless homework and picks up with a smile, ''Hogwarts, the updated history'' and flicks through it till she finds her page, it glows softly with a faint light, with a mutter, she de activates the spell, and the page fades back to faded parchment. She loves that spell. Her mind is soon drawn into the tales of the golden trio and their daring adventures fill her mind. With a mix of horror- stuck wonder she reads about He- Who-Must – Not- Be- Named, and the great battle of Hogwarts! Of the chosen one and Voldemort and then AVADA-KED- RRiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing Briiiiinngggggggg!

The school bell drags her out of this fantasy world she would love to call her home. She loves it there, wrapped up in magic, in spinning tales of hero's, in a story filled with drama and love and hope and wonder. The girl grumpily shuts the book and places it carefully in her bag. She scrambles out of her comfortable seat and wonders where all the time went. The librarian casts her smile, which she returns shyly as she leaves her safe haven…

( one step closer)

Her satchel swings on her hip as she dully walks towards the classroom, following a group of uncertain idiots. A look of shy, quietness has now broken through her clear composure. She takes a deep breath, because even though she's a Fabray, she is still nervous, and enters the classroom. The teacher has not yet arrived and the kids are behaving like a bunch of monkeys. Calm, Lucy thinks, calm…It's like the zoo! With this new outlook she holds her chin high and walks through the classroom, even smiling sort of coldly at some of the nicer looking girls. She seats herself in the middle of the class and promptly gets out her pencil case, and so before the teacher arrives Lucy can be found, doodling absently on her new notebooks.

It's a tiresome first lesson. Lucy learns nothing important, and her head soon fills with unhelpful trivia; the boy next to her is called Timothy, he has 4 cats, Jane next to her has a little sister called Charlotte, and one of the members of her class has a parrot, and as he had exclaimed proudly, 'HE'S RED!' Apart from learning the obvious intelligence of her various class mates… no, not an interesting first lesson at all, if it can indeed be called a lesson, not a rabble of un-orderly 5 year olds having meaningless conversations … She sighs and heads off to lunch; she catches the worry-some look the blonde headed teacher casts her, but she sets it aside. She knew she probably looked cold and silent and quiet to the teacher, and that was true, but she didn't want to make friends with any of the fiercely annoying members of her current class, lest she pick up on their tantalizingly annoying habits of screeching loudly across a perfectly quiet classroom.

(One step closer)

….

The teacher casts a worried look to the girl as she leaves the class, which she in turn, balefully ignores. She had been stubbornly quiet during the''lesson'', not the nice quiet either, the teacher had noticed, it was a cold, hard sort of quiet. She wondered what was going on in the girls head; she did seem to be, well different. Not the bullied type of different, the more important type, the people who know they are better then you type different, the bullying 'I'll stand up for myself fiercely,' different. The teacher pushes this aside and continues stacking papers on her desk, maybe Lucy just needed time to warm up to the more, obnoxious members of the class and then maybe the girl would talk to someone, she just needed to find someone equally well… ''Fabray-ish''

…

The first time she saw Brittney Pierce and Santana Lopez it was at lunchtime, Brittney had the dopiest, most adorable smile on her face that Lucy had ever seen, and she was playing contently in the sandbox, Lucy had smiled at the rare form of beauty before her, she was not only acknowledging the girl's fine features and dazzling blue eyes, but her courage. Courage for what exactly, she didn't know, but the girl positively radiated happiness and love. The Latina sitting next to her was another story, Lucy had seen her in the corridors at one point in the day and she had looked angry, the way she stormed around, taking no crap from nobody; told Lucy that she was not to be messed with, and that probably she would be a loyal ally, she admired that. She had shared a smirk with the girl, who had returned it equally deviously. But now, sitting next to this dopey, cute blonde, Lucy saw her eyes soften and a sort of protectiveness hang around her, over the blonde, in the way that she glared at the passing boys who stared at Brittney, this girl was hers, there was no doubt about that.

( I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you)

Lucy sat by the tree that lunch, eating her sandwiches and holding Harry Potter open with the other hand, the tree cast a welcome shadow over her book and she was thankful for it. The sun fell warmly down over her legs and she was in heaven. That is till an indignant; very much surprised squeal-like yelp broke through her thoughts and shattered that calm. She stood up quickly and cast around; somehow there was no doubt in her mind about who made that noise. She didn't know how she knew, she just knew. Rage swirled in her mind, and her eyes saw red, ''Those thugs! Those brutes, those good for nothing scoundrels! How could they!?''

Brittney is in the sandpit, sand all over her face, her hands are rubbing wildly at her eyes in a desperate attempt to remove the sand the boys have unceremoniously kicked at her. The two boys lean above her and the bucket of water slops dangerously in their arms. Their faces are set in smirks and their eyes are cold and leering. With a taunting comment that Lucy doesn't catch, they tip the bucket of water – of freezing cold, humiliating water – over the sand covered, and clearly distressed girl. That is it. Lucy snaps. Her golden hair swirls around her face and her eyes become cold and unforgiving, like a vengeful goddess she descends upon them and tears them down with cruel and demeaning words, the curses slip out of her mouth easily in her anger, and the boys freeze, mouths dropping open in shock. She runs to the aid of the girl, anger clouding out everything else, she stands above them, full of a hard power; her face is set in stone, a hateful expression gracing her beautiful features, about as uncompassionate and forgiving as ice. Where is Santana? Lucy thinks in her rage, the boys would be unconscious on the floor if she were here, where has she gone? Angry shouting erupts and the boys turn to another protector of the blonde girl, Brittney is still shivering, wet and muddy in the sandpit, her eyes wide in amazement of the scene playing out before her.

(For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more)

"¡Necios insolentes sangrientos! idiotas! culos! Aléjate de ella! Te voy a matar! ¡Lo haré!''

Santana runs up to the boys, two drinks in hand, - that's where she went, thinks Lucy, how sweet, Lucy inwardly smiles – Santana's dark black hair storms wildly around her, and with her eyes made of fire she curses up a storm in a language Lucy recognises as Spanish. Both girls seem to have the very wind on their side as Santana in a fit of rage, throws her drinks straight at the open mouthed boys. The deep blue slushies fly through the air, and upon impact, everything turns to hell…

That must be a record, thinks Lucy, first day of school and she is in the principal's office. She smiles at the girl sitting across from her, at which Santana returns; somewhat cautiously, with a similar sparkle of mischief in her eyes.

The office is musky, and the smell reminds her of one of those classrooms in Hogwarts that no-one has entered in like forever, where the air is full of the scent of wood and dust and age. She is staring intently at the wooden desk in front of her comparing it to the wardrobe that leads to Narnia. That's what this room reminds her of! She decides, the air and the way the light hits the – a cough grabs her attention and she raises her eyes to meet the principal's. He is glaring at both girls through his stupidly designed glasses. He coughs again, and Santana loses patience ''what?''

Lucy can literally see him take a deep breath and count to 10 at San's complete hostility.

He furrows his brow angrily, and begins his lecture; Lucy rolls her eyes at Santana when his back is turned and cheekily pokes out her tongue, at his continuous monologuing. San, with a shark toothed smile, sighs theatrically, obviously bored and paying no attention. The headmaster catches onto this and lowers his voice in a growl.

'' You young ladies mind explaining how I have 2 boys in the medical bay? Both covered head to toe in slushy and bruises? ''

''The boy slipped,'' said Santana indifferently while carefully pulling down her sleeves, to cover the evidence of a scuffle, which lay so clearly in the bruises on her arms.

''How does that explain the black eye?'' asked the headmaster angrily.

'' I'm telling you he slipped! '' she pauses ''Right?'' She looks at Quinn a very stubborn expression on her smooth tan features. She was not going to lose this fight.

''Yes sir, honestly he fell!'' Lucy supplies, with a completely straight and innocent face.

The balding man turns to her ''Don't think you can get away just yet, what about the other boy? Surely they can't have both slipped?''- His voice drips with sarcasm and disbelief.

'' Boys are dumb, they do lots of stupid things '' shrugs San, Quinn nods in approval. ''Who knows, maybe they fought each other?''

''Yeah! Especially those boys, they have the combined intelligence of a squirrel, maybe they were fighting over some nuts, or something?''

San giggles at this comment, and says ''Nuts? They sure don't have any.'' Both girls laugh in agreement, obviously not caring about the man in front of them who looked like he was about to explode. As Lucy opens her mouth to make another stab at the boy's lacking intellect the headmaster butts in annoyed;

''That's quite enough of that! You are already in enough trouble for today!'' ' He scowls in disapproval at the girls tittering comments and sighs flustered. ''Detention, for the both of you!''

He stubbornly ignores their glares and groans as they are chauffeured out of his office. Both girls drag their feet as they slowly make their way to an empty classroom. They are seated in the hard wooden desks by a rather bored looking teacher, who then sits down and begins to read. When Santana is sure they are deeply engrossed in the pages she turns to the girl she had thought was quiet, and grins - a look of approval shining in her eyes.

(And all along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me)

''Nice job Blondie''

''Blondie? Nice job Satan''

She grins devilishly at the black haired beauty, ''We sure have nuts''

Santana quietly snickers at this before raising her hand slowly to Lucy's, there is a spark of hope in her eyes as she asks, ''Friends?''

Lucy smiles properly at the girl, and her eyes sparkle with delight ''Always''

They spend the next 10 minutes in a comfortable silence, snickering to each other as they observe the teachers obvious impatience to leave. They watch him with wide 'innocent' eyes as he gets up out of his char and stares at them for a second;

''They're 5,'' he thinks, ''how much trouble can they get in? I mean, I'll lock the door, everything will be alright; principal Jefferson will understand, I have to go to a meeting – it's important.'' With this reasoning the man speaks to the girls, ''I have a very important meeting to attend to, at the end of lunch you will be let out by a teacher and you will report to Mr Jefferson at the end of the day.''

He leaves with what only can be a sigh of relief, and not a minute after the door has shut, a head appears at the window. Santana almost falls of her chair in surprise and Brittney giggles at her softly, '' It's just me San!' 'Santana runs to the window and on tiptoes she opens it to its widest, ''Hey Britt! This is Luce, she's our friend,'' Santana tells her proudly. Brittney smiles at this and it lights up the room, '' Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!'' The small blonde scrambles over the window pane and haphazardly falls into the room, She clambers up again and quickly rushes to Lucy engulfing her in a hug. ''I was so scared! Those boys came out of nowhere and San was gone and, and I didn't know what to do and thank you!'' It all comes out in a rumbled rush of words, ''I'm glad you're my friend,'' the girl beams at her equally proud as Santana. Lucy smiles at this filling with a happiness she can only describe as perfect, and pulls the dark haired beauty into a hug with the other blonde.

'' Thank you.''

Brittney seems slightly confused at this but Santana nods to her with an understanding smile.

(I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more)

The three sit at the desks in a circle, and Lucy basks in this new found friendship. They spend the rest of their detention happily talking, so much that they lose track of time. Lucy hears the scrape of a key in the lock and they quickly usher Brittney under a desk and shield her with their bodies, trying desperately to keep a straight face. In the corridor Santana sheepishly hugs her and whispers quietly, ''Thank you''

Lucy smiles at this and says ''It's okay, and...'' she whispers in her ear; '' I know she's your's.'' Santana turns bright red and stutters out something incomprehensible, before saying ''what?...''before sighing, '' that obvious?''

Lucy winks at her and smirks kindly, ''To me''

(I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more)

….

Horrible beeping tears into my mind; it's like one of those god-awful mornings when the alarm gives you a hangover. Unlike before, the noise does nothing to stop the pounding in my head and send me to my sub- consciousness; it painfully and slowly drags me to life. I become aware of the heaviness my body is encased in, and that my breathing is slow and ragged. I can taste blood in my mouth, and my face feels numb. I groan, pain shooting from my side as I breathe in. I lift my arm to my face, but they are trapped by blankets – wait. I just moved my ohmygosh I just I I … BREATHE. In a foggy confused state, with my eyelids feeling a million tons, I slowly and antagonizing-ly awaken, and slowly using all my strength, I open my eyes.. My heart is beating loudly in my chest; surely this cannot be a dream. Bright lights blinds me and a blurred head comes into my vision. Worried hazel eyes come into focus and I mutter out, extraordinarily confused, '' Puck?''

Thank you so much for reading! I will TRY and update soon! It's the last week of school so in the hol's I will update more :DD PLEASE REVIEW! I will honestly love you, I'll read your stories to!