Chapter 5

Santana woke up the next morning to the sound of her alarm at six in the morning. It was Friday, the last day of the school week. Ugh. I have to go to work and teach all those ungrateful teenagers about the importance of words and literature. None of them ever even listen to me.

Santana taught all the Pre-AP and AP English classes at the high school closest to their home. Sugar went to the high school as well, but she wasn't in any of Santana's classes. That was why Santana had never noticed that she was gone. The high school was too big and she never saw her there anyway.

Santana slowly got out of bed and got dressed in a black, knee length dress skirt, a white button down shirt, and a black blazer. After she was done getting dressed, fixing her hair, and doing her makeup, she headed out to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast, only to find that Sugar had already made her something.

"Sugar, you made me breakfast?" Santana asked, her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

Sugar turned around to face her mom just as she had finished making a plate of eggs and bacon for herself.

"Yup! Today's a big day so we should eat- wait...Why are you dressed like that?" Sugar asked once she saw what her mother was wearing.

"What are you talking about? I wear a skirt and a blazer to work everyday."

"But you said we were gonna go back and save Mama today," Sugar said, slightly disappointed.

"I know, but...we still have things to do today. I have to go to work, and you have to go to school."

Sugar continued to look at her mother with a pout on her lips.

Santana held her hand up in surrender. It was the exact same pout that Brittany used to use on her and she could only handle it for so long. She had to give in eventually. "Okay, fine. As soon as the last bell rings, come to my classroom and we'll leave together. Okay?"

Sugar squealed in excitement and went to crush Santana in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she screamed into Santana's ear.

Santana awkwardly tried to put her arms around her daughter, returning the hug, and smiled softly to herself. They hadn't hugged like this in a while. It's been so long since we've been this close...It's been too long. I should really try to connect with her more.

"Okay, okay. You can let go of me now," Santana said as she tried to peel her daughters arms off of her.

This only made Sugar hold on tighter. "Just a few more minutes," Sugar protested as she nuzzled into Santana's neck. "I miss this, plus you smell nice," she added.

"Um, okay," Santana replied. I smell nice? That's kind of a weird thing to say to your mother….Then again, she is Brittany's daughter.

"Okay seriously, Sugar, we need to start going," Santana insisted as she finally got her daughter's arms off of her.

"Aw, okay. Let's go," Sugar said as she slowly pulled away from her mom, grabbed her things, and walked out the door, Santana following closely behind.

As soon as the last bell rang, Sugar got out of class as fast as she could and went straight to her mom's classroom. Since her locker was right next to her mom's room, she decided to stop there first to get a few things. When she looked down the hallway where her locker was, she wasn't really surprised to see that some of the mean, popular girls were standing in front of it, like they were waiting for her or something.

Sugar didn't really have many friends here. In fact, for most of her life, she had been bullied because people thought she was too different. She was always saying and doing so many weird things that were just way out too of the ordinary for other people. They also thought that she wasn't very friendly, so they just didn't want to be around her.

Once she got to the two girls, Sugar broke out in her best 'fake' polite voice. "Hey Brooke, hey Steph. What's up?"

"Hey, Sugar. Where've you been? I haven't seen you in a while," Brooke said in an obviously 'fake' friendly voice as well. Brooke was a typical white-teenage girl. She had light brown hair, green eyes, perfect skin, perfect teeth, she was slim, and she was pretty tall too.

"I've just been at home. I've been down with a really bad cold," Sugar explained as she pushed the two girls aside to get to her locker.

"Are you sure it was just a cold? You've been gone for like, two weeks," Steph questioned as she crossed her arms over her chest. Steph was similar to Brooke, but she was also pretty different too. She wasn't as mean as her friend though, and she actually tried to be nice to people, but sometimes Brooke would encourage Steph to follow her and do what she did.

"Yup...I just had a uhh...really bad sinus infection. You know how those things are," Sugar lied as she got her things out of her locker.

"Oh yeah. I totally know what you mean. Those things can be a bitch," Steph replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Definitely. I had one a few months ago and I didn't look nearly as good as you do now, Sugar. It took me like a month to get back to normal," Brooke added.

"Oh, then yours must have been a really bad one," Sugar replied as she closed her locker and turned to face the two girls.

As soon as she turned around, her phone went off. Sugar reached for her purse to get it, but she was too late. Brooke had already taken it out for her.

"Ooh, looks like 'Mommy' wants you. You better answer this or she'll start to get worried," Brooke said once she saw who was calling the shorter girl.

"Or maybe she won't get worried. I heard that she didn't even know that you haven't been showing up here until the principal finally told her. That must suck to have a parent that doesn't care about you. Especially since she's your only parent now, right Sugar?"

At hearing the last sentence, Sugar's eyes started to tear up.

Steph realized that her friend had taken it too far and elbowed her in the side. "Brooke," Steph whispered in a harsh tone.

"What? It's true, isn't it? It's totally not fair that she can just skip school and not get into any trouble. It's only because her mom's a teacher here and her family's totally rich so they fund a bunch of stuff here. Plus, her other mom just died so they're totally giving her the special treatment. It isn't right."

"HEY!" Santana shouted at the two girls.

"What do you two think you are doing?" The latina questioned.

All three of the girls jumped at hearing her voice.

"Uh..n-nothing, Mrs. Pierce-Lopez. We were just talking."

"Are you sure? Because that's not what I heard," Santana questioned as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Brooke looked at her and responded. "N-no. It's not like that, Mrs. Pierce-Lopez...We were just-"

"You were just bullying my daughter my daughter, right?" Santana asked Brooke. Then she looked to Steph. "Right, Stephanie?"

Stephanie looked down at her feet and mumbled, "Y-yes, Mrs. Pierce-Lopez."

"That's what I thought," Santana said and then just glared at them for a few moments. All three girls didn't know what to do. Even Sugar, she hadn't seen her mom this angry in a long time.

Sugar broke the silence by clearing her throat and looked at her mom, silently asking her to hurry up and do whatever she was going to do to them.

"Alright, you two can go now. Just don't let me catch you doing this ever again. Do you hear me?" Santana asked.

"Yes, Mrs. Pierce-Lopez," both Brooke and Steph answered in unison.

"Okay, you can go away now," Santana shooed them off.

Once the girls were gone, Santana turned to her daughter and wrapped one arm around her. "Are you okay, mija?"

Sugar leaned her head on her mom's shoulder and wrapped her arm around her as well. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just ready to go home and see Mama ."

"Me too, Sugar...me too."