A/N.: Edit 17/08/2014
The only actual changes I've been doing are retouches and some corrections... nothing actually major. The only major chance i'd say is that now Hiram is a Jack Russell instead of a Shih Tzu.
Chapter 5 – A gorgon's heart
Santana had a well-known reputation of being angry all the time. She didn't care, though. The ones who really mattered knew better than that. Santana was the Cheerios' second in command. Almost a co-captain, she would say.
And here was her doing small work. She didn't even want to know how Sue got the address she just followed the order. She stopped the car and looked at the house.
"It's a nice house, at least." She sighed. "Man, I'm going to wake up everyone. Her fathers will probably want to behead me. The perfect gorgon cliché."
The girl got out of her car and walked to the front door. She looked at her cellphone to check the hour. "Holly, damn!" she mumbled under her breath. "Coach is definitely crazy asking me to come to someone's house at 5 in the morning." Santana sighed preparing herself to ring the bell. "They're going to shoot me… or call the police…" she muttered finally ringing the bell.
To her surprise she didn't even need to ring it again, nor wait too long. The door was soon opened by a relatively small man. He was a dog like Rachel said. A Jack Russell more precisely.
And he wore glasses. Thick ones.
"Hello… I…" she started a little uncertain while the man stared at her.
"Hello, dear. I guess you're from Rachel's school. The cheerleaders? She told us she ended up joining the team." The man said sweetly, surprising her.
"Hum… Yeah. Good morning, Mr. Berry, I know it's, like, ridiculous early, but our coach is kinda crazy and she told me to come get Be-, hum, Rachel early so she could try her uniform." Santana explained.
"Of course." He murmured giving her space to enter the house. "She told us yesterday that the coach seemed a bit odd. Don't worry, sweetheart, you didn't wake me up." The man said taking her to the kitchen "And its Dr. Berry, Mr. Berry is my husband. I was on call at the hospital this night. I just thought I could leave them some breakfast before going to bed… You can go wake her up. It's not that much earlier than she is used to." He explained and pointed the stars in the corridor just out of the kitchen "The door with a star on it."
"Ok, sir. Thank you, and sorry again." Santana said politely.
She did know how to behave when she wanted and the man was nothing but nice to her. He didn't even look funny at her or seemed afraid to look at her in the eyes. Probably because he was a doctor… even so. She wondered if the man worked in the same hospital as her dad.
She went up the stairs and easily found Rachel's room. She knocked first, but when she didn't get an answer she just went in anyway.
Rachel's room was dark with the thick curtains closed. It seemed to be big, though. She was very careful walking around the room until she got to the queen sized bed.
"Berry!" Santana calls the girl, looking for the kitty girl in the mess of blanket before her. "Berry, wake up!" the gorgon hiss between clenched teeth.
"Wha?" Comes a weak and groggy voice from the middle of the bed.
"It's Santana here. Coach sent me to get you. Your father told me I could come wake you up." Santana explained whispering-yelling
"Oh. Ok." She answers starting to rise still covered by the blanket.
Santana doesn't exactly show, but she is rather surprised to see the girl and not the cat coming from under the covers.
"Your coach is crazy." Rachel mumbles, getting out of the bed and going to the window.
"It's your coach now too." The latina points out.
"Ugh! Don't remind me…" the girl answers still muttering.
Rachel just open up the blackout curtain letting the thinner and colored one still closed. Like Santana suspected the room was pretty big. The walls were kind of yellow and the furniture was made of a cream colored wood. The girl had a lot of things. And not all the boxes were cleared out. It was obvious that the girl had just moved.
Santana was so busy inspecting the place that she didn't noticed Rachel going to her bathroom and coming back after some minutes pretty much naked.
"I thought your kind transformed in your sleep, you know?" Santana comments looking at Rachel's stuffs. "Quinn always is on her lion form as soon as she falls asleep…"
"Seriously?" Rachel inquires stopping her movements and looking at Santana. "That's cute." The kitty girl giggles catching and plugging her hairdryer while sitting in her chair.
"What do you mean?" Santana ask turning just to be surprised when she sees the girl only in her underwear while she blew her tail's fur dry.
"It can happen. But it's more like a symptom of somnambulism than anything else. There are some people who prefer to sleep on their animal form. Some do say it is our more natural form." Rachel explained.
"Hm… don't explain why she always seems bothered when it is mentioned." Santana shrugs.
"Well, she can see it as signal of vulnerability. It may mean that she fells so safe and comfortable that she unconsciously transforms." Rachel answered. "There are various emotions that can cause an instinctive transformation. I sometimes transform when I'm startled."
"Oh, really?" Santana asked with a wicked smile.
"I also can have an really aggressive reaction to it." Rachel warned sensing where the other girl was going "There this guy who startled me and my claws went so deep in him that even after molting three times he still had the scars."
"Okaay, Cat, I'm not going to startle you, don't worry." Santana says shrugging and sitting on the girl's bed while she dried her hair and fur. 'But I can totally send others to do that.' The latina added inside her head.
When Rachel finishes she unplugs her hairdryer and get up going after some clothes to wear. She dress herself with a pair of short jeans shorts and an white tank top. She also gets an red sweatshirt. On her feet Rachel wears a pair of really worn out yellowish Vans. Santana guess they used to be white when they were new.
The girl then gets her backpack putting stuffs inside it and grabs her cellphone facing Santana again.
"I'm done, let's go?" Rachel says pointing the door
"Oh, look! You have normal clothes!" the gorgon mocks getting up.
Santana had waited for the girl lying on the bed closing her eyes to control herself from ogling the girl while she dressed herself. She didn't think that Rachel would mind that much, nor would Britt feel offended that she found other girls attractive, but she didn't want to assume. Also, Quinn sure would mind. She almost ripped Evans' head off, after all.
Rachel rolled her eyes at Santana's words before answering. "This is some of the only ones that survived the fire. Saturday I'll buy my clothes."
"So… where are we going to meet Saturday?" Santana asked nonchalantly.
"You're really going?" the kitty girl let out surprised "Well I can always tell my dads that I don't need their help." she added with a shrug.
"Say again… how your things got burned?" the gorgon asked following into the kitchen were Dr Berry was finishing the breakfast
"I made enough for your friend too, kitten." He said turning to his daughter "Isn't that short a bit too short for school?" He said when saw what the girl was using.
"Dad! Don't call me kitten, please!" the girl pleaded feeling embarrassed before adding and pointing Santana's uniform. "And is not too short. I'll be using that kind of skirt for school soon, you know?"
"Oh lord… just don't come home pregnant, will you?" the man said sighing
"You're a doctor! You know it takes more than just sex for a woman to get another pregnant!" she said almost yelling in a very frustrated manner. "And it's not, like, females of all species can get another female pregnant. The species that can do that are very few actually." The girl added huffing.
Santana just stared at then with a badly hidden smile finding their interaction pretty amusing.
"It still can happen." He answered unfazed.
"Ugh! We're going. Good morning, sir." Rachel said gritting her teeth, her canines a little more exposed and intimidating than usually, while she drags Santana out of the kitchen and then the house.
"But your breakfast?" The man asked pointing the pancakes.
Rachel just stopped dragging Santana around when they got to the taller girl's car. Rachel seemed really embarrassed and kind of just stayed there waiting for Santana to make any kind of move. When the girl extended her hand to the car, Rachel was soon going to the other side so she could enter the vehicle too.
"Sooo…" Santana started, after they were both inside the car and already moving, startling Rachel a little. "The fire?"
"Oh… It was a dragon, our previous neighbor. I think I already told you that." The kitty girl answers relaxing in her seat.
"Yeah… I think you did too. But you said something about insurance, right?" At Rachel's nod she continued. "How come you got insurance? I thought they didn't let you have insurance against fire if you lived close to dragons or other fire creatures… I mean, in that cases the insurance would be crazy expansive. Then you shouldn't need to wait the insurance money cus' you would be crazy loaded…"
"There is not wrong with your reasoning." Rachel said with a smile "We have money, we don't reaaally need to wait, but we're not crazy loaded either. But, also we had our insurance made before the dragons moved next to us. Because of that it wasn't that expansive and we still had the insurance…" she explained
"Oh, lucky then…" Santana said parking her car on one of the cheerios' reserved parking spot. "We're here. Let's go see the coach so you can try your new uniform. She ordered them with urgency yesterday morning. I'm surprised they're already here."
Both of them were already out of the car and entering the school building at this point.
"They're probably terrified of her." Rachel says with a laugh.
"There is no questioning that." The voice of one Sue Sylvester comes from behind them. "You two, are late." She points out before striding down the hallway without waiting for an answer.
Getting to her office she points a middle sized sports bag with the cheerios logo on it. It was red, black and white and had WMHS embroidered on the side, under the name of the Cheerios. Rachel opened the bag and found inside six uniform shirts, three skirts of one kind and three of another. There were also the letterman, two gym pants, four gray T-shirts, two sleeveless and two with sleeves, with the school's name on it in red and six spanxs. And as if all that wasn't already enough she also saw some extra things, like bottles, flags and stickers with the cheerios and WMHS logo on it.
"Now. Go to the cheerios' locker room and find yourself a locker, put your things there and try out the uniforms if there is any problem you come and report to me, if there is no problem Santana will take you to the Cheerios' lounge where you will wait until it's time for the practice."
Rachel just nodded following Santana out of the room.
I wasn't that hard to find a locker for her. She quickly starts changing her clothes but it isn't long before she finds a problem.
"Uh…" Rachel mumbles
"What?" Santana, who wasn't exactly looking at her, just spying from time to time, asks.
"They're… well." Rachel hesitates.
"What?" Santana inquires again.
"They're too big! And don't have holes for my tail." She blurts. "The spanxs and t-shirts are okay, but the skirts and pants and the uniform shirts are a size too big. I like the letterman being a size bigger however."
"But they're size S!" Santana says grabbing one of the skirts and looking the tag.
"I know! But they're too big!" Rachel exclaimed
"Holly Shit, You really are a munchkin, ain't you?" Santana say starting to laugh
"I am not, Santana!" Rachel protests only making the latina laugh even harder. "Urgh, you're insufferable! Poor Brittany who has to put up with you!"
"It's called love, babe, no need to be jealous." The gorgon said with a smug grin still holding one of the girl skirts. "As much fun I'm having here, we have to go and report it to coach, though."
Sue Sylvester didn't like the news one bit. Rachel would have to go with her normal clothes for the day and because she didn't want to dirty her clothes she had to attend practice only in her spanx and one of the gray t-shirts.
"Why you're not using your uniform?" Brittany asked curious.
Sylvester who was standing beside Rachel introducing her to the squad answered angrily. "The S of the company was too big for her."
"What their ass has to do with Rachey's uniform?" The nymph asked really confused making the girls laugh which only made the coach even angrier.
"YOU BUNCH OF SLOPPY BABIES, START PRACTICE NOW!" The woman yelled through a megaphone making Rachel jump and hiss at the loud sound next to her sensitive ears. "RUN 20 LAPS AROUND THE FIELD! NOW! NOW! NOW!"
Rachel was fast to comply with the order, being soon followed by the other girls. Practice wasn't starting well and it just got worse from there.
When the football practice started they were soon catcalling Rachel and kind of verbally harassing her. Quinn and Santana didn't liked that one bit and started yelling back at them which ended up almost in a fight were five girls had to hold Quinn's back, barely being able to do so. And three boys from the cheer team and another girl tried to held Santana back, ending up with some snake bites, but at least with a better fate them one of the football players who ended up as a statue in the middle of the field while flipping the bird.
All the confusion made both Sylvester and the football coach very pissed. They didn't fight each other though. They also seemed to agree that the football team were at fault since only they were punished and taken off the field, carrying the statue as they left.
After that, practice was very harsh and by the end of it their legs were barely being able to support them.
"Why did I agree to enter the team again?" Rachel mumbled stripping off her clothes.
"Something about college applications looking good I guess. Quinn made puppy eyes at you too." Santana answered mimicking her actions.
"I did not!" Quinn protested losing her fight against the urge to stare at Rachel naked back.