As Santana walked into McKinley High School on the first day of her senior year, she saw Melody, who had come to school early, at her locker. She was about to walk over to Melody, but then thought back to her conversation with Rachel from the week before.
FLASHBACK:
Santana walked the short distance to the house next door. She opened the front door, said hi to father and step-father, and then climbed the stairs to Rachel's room. She almost just walked in, but then decided to knock.
"Its open." A voice from inside said. Rachel looked up to see who was entering her room, and the look on her face when she saw who it was did not go unnoticed by Santana.
"What do you want?"
"Rachel, I'm really sorry for hurting your feelings." Santana watched as her sister processed that.
"Santana…" Rachel began. "Its not just that. All these years, you've never had any problem taking Melody with you when you go places. You almost never ask me to go anywhere." Rachel was on the verge of tears.
"Its never bothered you before." Santana tried to argue, feeling worse by the second.
"Yea it has, San. But I just pushed to the back of my mind, thinking that you were always just in a hurry and didn't think about the sister that doesn't live with you. You've always been the best sister anyone can ask for, as long as we are at home. But in public, you don't really talk to me. But earlier, that was the last straw. I'm done pretending like this is okay with me or that it is normal."
"Rach, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you don't have to acknowledge my presence, the fact that we are sisters, or even the fact that I exist at school or even anywhere."
Santana knew it was wrong, but in the back of her mind she was somewhat relieved. At least until she heard what came out of Rachel's mouth next.
"But just know that if that is the case, I won't acknowledge you at home." Rachel looked down at the book she was reading.
"Rachel, come on. I'm still your big sister." Santana was crushed.
"Biologically, yes. But sisters don't act like this." Rachel pointed to the door. "Can you please leave Santana?"
Santana stared at her sister, unable to believe what was happening, then turned to leave.
"Santana?" she heard a voice from behind her. Santana turned around to face Rachel.
"Yea Rach?"
"I'm sorry it has to be like this." After hearing that, Santana quickly left the house, walked back to her own house, went to her room, and cried.
END FLASHBACK
Santana looked back at Melody and saw her staring at something behind them. She could hear what was going on and it sounded as if the first slushie of the school year was about to be tossed. Turning around, she saw the football players surrounding some poor kid, by the sounds of it, a freshman.
"What…what are you guys doing?" the kid asked.
Santana eyes widened. She knew that voice. "Rachel." She whispered.
The last thing Rachel saw before the red slushie hit her was Santana looking at her. The next thing she knew, she felt a cold, sticky liquid on her. After wiping the stuff out of her eyes, she looked back at Santana, who looked heartbroken. She heard a voice behind her and recognized her best friends' voices. She'd been friends with Mercedes and Kurt most of her life. After asking if she was okay, they looked at Santana, then back at Rachel. Mercedes took Rachel into the bathroom to help her clean up, and Kurt simply stared at Santana for a few moments before going to find his locker. Santana turned around, disgusted with herself and found herself almost running over Melody who was giving her a look that had as much disgust in it.
"So you're just gonna stand by and let that happen?" Melody asked.
"Mel, what am I supposed to do?" Santana sighed.
"Hmm, I don't know San. How about tell everyone to back off? If it were me, that's what you'd do and we aren't even blood related." Melody casted one more disgusted glare at her sister before walking away.
"Where are you going?" Santana asked.
"To check on Rachel. Because I know you won't, and I actually care about her." Melody walked to the bathroom.
"Hey! I care about her to!" Santana yelled after Melody.
"Care about who?"
Santana turned around to see Brittany Pierce and Quinn Fabray, her two best friends and the people directly below her in the food chain. They were seniors, like her, but no one really knew how Brittany had made it all the way to senior year.
"Care about who, San?" Quinn repeated.
"Uh…my mom. Melody was giving me a hard time because I almost forgot my mom's birthday." Santana lied, even though, now that she thought about it, her mom's birthday was in three days and she hadn't remembered until now.
"San." Quinn replied.
"What?" Santana asked innocently.
"San, come on. Even I don't buy that one." Brittany said.
"Fine. Rachel." Santana said and refused to answer anymore questions.
'I gotta get Mom a present' she thought as she started to walk to her first class, with the other two quickly following.
Santana got through her first five periods without seeing Rachel or Melody. At lunch, she wasn't so lucky. She had just gotten her salad and sat down at the popular table, when she saw Rachel walk in with Melody, Kurt, and Mercedes. With a little closer inspection she saw that there was not only a red stain on Rachel's sweater, but now a blue one as well. Santana got angry with the thought of someone hitting her baby sister with another slushie before lunch. She felt a touch on her shoulder and looked to see Amy, a junior Cheerio pointing in Rachel's direction.
"Looks like Karofsky is gonna give that loser freshman, the one with your sister, slushie number three. And its only lunch. She got number two between second and third periods." Amy said.
Santana looked back in that direction. Karofsky was far enough away. If she hurried, she could do something. Suddenly, she got up.
"Slushies sound good right now. Sugar rush, you know how it is. I'm gonna go get one." Santana went to the slushie machine, quickly got one and paid for it and made her way back to her table, purposely going the extremely long way so she would have to pass the table her sisters were sitting at. She had never been so thankful for the large cafeteria, because Karofsky was just making it to the table as well. As he went to throw the drink at Rachel, Santana surprised him by throwing her slushie in his face first.
"Lopez what was that about?" Karofsky yelled.
Santana took a deep breath and climbed on top of Rachel and Melody's table.
"Everybody listen up! This girl right here, that's Rachel Berry. She's my sister and all of this throwing slushies at her crap? Its gonna end. As in, it ends now! If I see someone so much as look at her the wrong way, I will personally make you regret it. And if I hear about it, don't even bother hiding, because I will find you. And remember that the Cheerios you see in the hallways report to me. Same goes for my other sister, Melody." With that, Santana got down from the table, grabbed the slushie out of Karofsky's hands, and started to drink it, but quickly stopped. She gave Karofsky her best death glare, a mix of "don't mess with me", "don't lie to me", and "I really, really don't like you so watch out" glares, and asked "You didn't do anything to this right? Its just a regular slushie?"
Karofsky was either still in to much shock or simply just terrified of Santana to lie to her. "Its nothing but slushie."
Santana nodded, looked at Rachel, and smiled. As she turned to walk back to her table she heard her name being called and turned back around.
"What's up Rach?"
"Thanks." Was all that she said.
Santana smiled. "Any time." She paused, handed Rachel the slushie, then looked at Melody. "Do you want one?" she asked, gesturing at the slushie.
Melody was in too much shock to answer, so she simply shook her head. Kurt and Mercedes stared at her with their mouth's wide open. Santana shrugged, and walked to the slushie machine and bought one more slushie for herself. She hadn't intended on getting one, but all that slushie talk had made her want one really bad. She looked back at her sisters one more time and felt extremely good about herself. She walked back to her table and sat down as if nothing had happened, even though everyone at her table was looking at her with the exception of Brittany, Quinn, Puck (Quinn's boyfriend and Santana's best guy friend), and Finn (Santana's boyfriend). They were the four people closest to her, and knew about Rachel.