"Ugh fuck I'm so tired!" I whine flopping face first onto my bed. "Santana, we need to get to school!" Rachel lectures behind me. I lift my head enough to see my clock. "We have one hour before we need to leave to get there by lunch midget so either lay your ass down here with me or go find a quiet activity elsewhere!" "I'm not sure we should, uh, share a bed now." she says quietly I roll my eyes and lift my head to turn back and stare at her. "And why is that?" I ask raising a brow. She rolls her eyes, "because we've kissed!" she says as though it's obvious. "Yes, I'm aware of that so what? Now you think I'll be unable to keep my paws off you, Berry?" I laugh out loud. "Get over yourself and get your ass over here I need my teddy bear." "I am most certainly not your teddy bear!" she huffs but climbs in next to me non the less. "You know I'm quite surprised to find out what a snugly person you are. I half expected you to breathe fire should I even roll to your side of the bed." My eyes shoot open to glare at her. "Shoot fire? You are so dramatic, now seriously shut your trap or I'll rip off your head and pull your stuffing out." I close my eyes smiling a bit at the visual She doesn't respond verbally thank the good lord, she just huffs.

My eyes open slowly, blinking a few times before coming into focus. I hear the front door open and assume a slamming car door was what woke me. Oh holy shit, what time is it!? "Fuck fuck fuck! Berry wake up now!" I hiss pushing at her as gently as possible.

"Ow what the.." She looks bewildered until she hears noise coming from downstairs her eyes grow wide.

"Can you lie?"

"Huh?" she asks confused.

"Berry focus my moms home..which means we slept all day and missed school and everything, she can't find that out you need to lie."

"I can't!"

"Rachel! Just shut up and agree with whatever I say." She looks terrified, she should be if my Mom finds out! Just then my door swings open to reveal my Mother with an unreadable expression on her face.

"How was the Doctors visit Rachel?"

"It was ... I don't know, I'm just glad it's over with. Thank you so much for allowing Santana to come with me Ma'am ..I mean Maria, I would never have gotten through this today without her support." I shut my mouth quickly realizing it had fallen open from shock. I can not believe this little suck up routine was working my mother! She'd have shut me up immediately and began lecturing but here she is smiling and happily chatting with Rachel. I really wanted to chime in and ask 'what the fuck mama' but not only did I not want to get smacked or be forced to keep soap in my mouth but also I was definitely not missing the lecturing. Somewhere in the middle of their ridiculous conversation I remembered I'd threatened Karofsky's life if he didn't meet me after school. "Mother fuck!" I exclaimed hopping off the bed. "Ouch!" I shrieked feeling a strong smack to my ass. "What did I tell you about cursing!" my mom said sternly. I shot Rachel a death glare hearing her burst out in laughter at that statement about my cursing. She quickly tried to cover it up with a cough. "Where did you even come from! You were just standing in the door way!" I grumbled rubbing the sting. "I mean, I'm sorry Mama." I said quickly seeing the warning glare.

"Where do you think you are going?" she asks crossing her arms. Uh oh she totally knows I skipped. How could she though?

"I have some business to attend to, Mama."

"Is that right, mija? And just what business would that be?"

"Cheerios" I say quickly, grabbing my outfit from my closet.

"That's interesting because your lovely coach called my office today and threatened to have me deported back to my 'mother country' should you not attend Cherrios practice again. It seems you forgot to go after school today." she says with an unreadable face. Fuck, I really want to know if she knows or not cause I'd much rather lie but definitely not if I'm gonna be caught in it. My strong reaction and feelings to telling the truth whether anyone wants to hear it or not and not being lied to is something I inherited from my mother. If you think I'm scary you should see her angry!

"Uh pardon me, I'm going to just jump in the shower if you don't mind. Thanks again for everything, Maria."

"Anytime, sweetie. I expect to see you for dinner. You will be staying with us until your Fathers return is that clear?"

"Yes, if you're sure I'm not imposing."

" Definitely not!" my mom says hugging Rachel before she walks out of my bedroom.

"So mija this will be your last chance, you want to tell me again how school was?" I turned around to look at my mother, well aware of the fact I must look guilty as sin. I'm bad ass and all but definitely not towards my mother.

"I'm sorry" is all that seems to come out. "I…we didn't plan for this to happen, we had an hour before we had to get back but then the next thing I knew I heard a car door slam."

"And the reason you didn't tell me this from the beginning?"

"I didn't think you'd believe me, honestly! You made me promise not to skip if you wrote the pass and I didn't intend to."

"So instead you force that poor girl to lie for you!"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes "I did not force her to do anything"

"Santana" my mother warned

"Mama" I said mimicking her tone "Sorry" I mumbled upon seeing her face. "I know you're not happy with me but I like seriously need to bounce."

"I don't even understand what you just said; you must have English classes. Who is teaching you to speak this way?"

"I need to get going, Mama, just for an hour or less most likely. Please I'll come right home but I'm going to be late meeting someone and you've always taught me it's not polite to stand people up."

"Very cute, using my own words against me now. Do not lie to me again Santana, you are always so convinced as to what my reaction will be but that is unfair of you to assume without giving me a chance. I'll let it go this one time but believe me when I tell you you'll be very sorry if I catch you in a lie again. You know my feelings toward lying as you share them yourself."

"Thanks Mama!" I said placing a kiss on her cheek on my way past.

"I'm serious about the lying m'ija" she said sending me on my way with a sharp smack to my backside. He'd better be there waiting.

I saw him as soon as I pulled into McKinley parking lot. I let out a bark of laughter the closer I got upon seeing him in a wheel chair looking like a truck hit him. He had the most ridiculous pout on his ugly mug which was doing wonders for my mood.

"My my I must say I do like this look on you." I said smiling wickedly as I climbed out of my car. He glared at me which just made him more hilarious looking to me. There was a sheet of paper on his lap that his eyes moved to. "Oh you think I'll make this easy on you and grab that so you don't have to try to move? HA fat chance, go on hand it to me." He glared again but began what looked like an agonizing attempt to move his arm to pick it up. I took two steps back and held out my arm with a big shit eating grin. He very slowly began to stretch his arm out trying to reach my hand. Just as he almost reached it I took another step back with a smirk. He grunted, I'm beginning to think it may hurt too much for him to speak. This thought only caused me to grin bigger. I finally let it fall into my hand and read quickly that he was all clean for most and there were a few pending. My eyes shot up to lock with his. "They'll…be back in a week" He groaned.

"That's interesting because I believe I asked you to have all the results TODAY, not a week from now." I hissed.

"What do you want? Me to speed up tests that take a week Santana!" he growled at me.

"Um, yep that sounds about right" I yell slamming my hand with the paper against his chest hard. He made this awful noise like all the air left his lungs and began to wheeze. We did some damage that's for damn sure. Good. "I expect to know the minute you find out and if I were you I'd find a way to hurry up those results!" I yelled.

"Everything alright over there?" I heard Coaches voice float across the parking lot.

"No, perverts trying to look up my skirt from his new vantage point" I called back.

"Alright well I'm just going to turn around and look at these fascinating rocks on the ground behind me for a few seconds, so don't do anything crazy like slap him or anything, sandbags." I smiled and looked down to see his face had gone white as a sheet.

"Gotta follow coaches orders" I smirked before pulling my hand back and crashing it as hard as I could against his swollen and bruised face. I didn't stick around to hear his whining, or till coach turned back around. I knew she'd be eager to rip into me about missing practice again. I heard my phone vibrating in the cup holder and saw "Britt Britt" flashing on the screen. "Fuck fuck fucking fuck" I whined but answered non the less. I pulled my car over "Hey" I said softly into the receiver. "I'm sorry" we both said in unison. "It's just hard for me to share you, I've never had to. I'm sorry I put you in a bad spot and made you sad." I said.

"It's okay San I don't know how I'd feel if this were all reversed." My heart clenched at the memory of Rachel and I kissing earlier. I felt guilty as fuck. How can I feel guilty!? She's got a fucking boyfriend. This shit's getting more wacky than a soap opera. "San?" Oops I'd completely stopped talking!

"Yea, I'm here Britt. This sucks, I'm afraid I'm going to lose you." I said completely stunned that not only honestly but my feelings came tumbling out.

"You can't ever lose me honey; it's always going to be you and me. I might have a boyfriend right now but I've had you forever, you're my Santana nobody can be you. I need you, San. I couldn't get my food to microwave for 2 minutes today and I stood there crying and pressing every button."

My heart ached at the visual "Why didn't you call me honey?"

"I didn't know if I could, I don't ever want to feel like that again. I need you always San."

"Baby you can always call me, okay? Even if I took my bitch pills and I'm mad or whatever is happening Britt I'm always here okay?"

"Promise?" she said in a strangled whisper.

"Of course! Don't leave me either, Britt" She let out a laugh,

"I would never leave you Santana, I love macaroni & cheese cups too much."

"Huh?"

"I can't microwave them without you." I rolled my eyes. That's as close as I'll get to a response from her. Besides that's pretty damn reassuring.

"Okay so were all good then, I'll see you tomorrow okay?"

"Can't you come over? I want to get my cuddle on now that I know were okay."

"I wish Britt but I lied to my mom about school today so I'm grounded for the night" the half lie came out of my mouth without a thought. Why the fuck didn't I just tell her Rachel was there? I shrugged it off. I could hear her deflate over the phone.

"Okay, I'll see you at school. Oh and watch out crossing the street, San, Karofsky got ran over by a truck you should see him." I bit my tongue really fucking hard said goodbye fast and hung up before I either laughed hysterically or cried because for once Brit Brit didn't know everything that was going on with me. I wish I could hit that son of a bitch with a truck. I hadn't forgotten about Kurt though. He's next on the list, but a lot fucking harder to take care of without getting into a shit storm of trouble.

*******************************************************************************
The sound of the bell causes me to jolt awake knocking my books to the floor. "Shit. Fuck." I mutter picking them up.

"Miss Lopez I'd like a word please."

"Not a good time." I say back without looking at Mrs. Corcran.

"I wasn't asking." she fires back causing me to roll my eyes dramatically. "You can watch that eye roll or you'll be spending the afternoon with me as well." I laughed out loud at that. "Oh please, lady I'm head Cheerio, the ONLY Place i'll ever be after school is at practice." I scoff turning to face her now. Her arms are crossed, eyebrow raised, challenge accepted. She thinks she's a HIBIC? Please I deal with Fabray everyday, no one can out bitch Fabray. Out of nowhere her posture slackens and her face softens. "Are you okay?"

"Uh what now? I must have nodded off again cause you were just threatening me, were you not? Now you're concerned about me? I'm fine. I"m always fine, except actually right now because I'm supposed to have met someone a few minutes ago and they're going to be upset I'm not there.

"Brittany is meeting Rachel" she says moving some folders around on her desk. I move to stand in front of her on the other side of her desk

"Excuse me?" I hiss.

"You heard me, and I won't tell you again to calm the attitude. I'm not blind Santana I see you picking her up after her period with me so I was nice enough to ask Brittany to walk Rachel to her next class and tell her you had a meeting with me."

"Oh you were kind enough to rearrange my schedule without my knowledge so I'm supposed to thank you? Is that it?"

"You can keep your walls up and keep fighting me if you really want to but I can see how exhausted you are, you don't have to keep up the act in front of me. All I'm saying is I'm here okay? If you want someone else to carry the load ..whatever it might be...for a little while so you can be a teenager again or I don't know take a breath that's what I'm hear for. I"d never break your trust or tell a soul I literally have nothing to gain from this just a giant migraine from your screaming." Well shit, I don't know what to say to that. "Wow, I rendered you speechless!" she mocks with a small giggle.

"Tell anyone and you're toast" I say unable to hide my smile. "I'd love to fight you on this, I don't need help and I'm fine and everything but I'm too tired to waste what energy I have left on you."
"Gee I'm flattered."

"If I intended to flatter you believe me your ass would be flat-ered but I did not."

"So, what can I do for you? What do you need?"

"Uh God" I whine "This sounds so after school special. There's no switch you know?"

"Switch?"

"Yeah like I cant flip a switch and just let my guard down or act all vulnerable and shit."

"I didn't ask you to. You're just wound up so tight from an unusual amount of stress and I'm worried. It's what teachers and coaches do, we worry."

"I can't tell you."

"You don't have to."

"Can you write me a pass to skip the last two periods?"

She laughs until she sees my serious face. "You better have a good reason."

"I just...I'm tired...my red bulls running out and I feel like I'm seconds from just dropping to the floor. If I could just ..."

"Nap? You want me to excuse you from two periods for a nap?"

"Don't say nap! I"m not a child!"

"Sorry, sure I'll write your pass. Don't get used to this I'm not offering to get you out of your classes but I can see you look like the living dead."

I frowned. "Gee thanks"

Sorry so long between updates...life happens. I'm 3/4 through the next chapter so with any luck it will be up soon.