"Hello, Renee and Jeff." I was surprised to see them. "It's so nice to see you again!"

I was carrying a heavy box into Brittany's new apartment in Hamilton.

Jeff took the box from me and braced himself as he felt the heaviness from the load. "Wow, Santana! Wonder woman right here. I guess it's those swimmer muscles. It's a pleasant surprise to see you here. You look really tan." Apparently, they didn't know we'd be seeing each other either. He looked at the label and set it in the kitchen. Brittany's new apartment was slightly bigger than the one in Lima and it was just as impressive if not more.

I smiled at him and gave him a hug. "Two-a-days in this heat really does a number to my skin, I even buy my waterproof SPF 50 by the gallon!"

Renee laughed and also gave me a small hug. "I hope you've been taking care of our Brittany."

I nodded. "Yes. Somebody's got to keep her in line!" I joked.

Brittany emerged from one of the rooms down the hallway. "Hey Santana!"

"Hi!" I gave her a small hug and she pecked me on the cheek.

"Santana drove down here after swim practice with her parent's Suburban packed full of my crap to help me move in," Brittany announced proudly.

Renee smiled. "That's very sweet of you, honey. Is there a lot left?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, it's parked in the front row. It's black."

"Alright, Jeff, let's go grab some boxes." Jeff followed Renee out.

When they were out of earshot, I told Brittany, "You didn't tell me they were going to be here! I would've looked a little nicer." I pointed from head to toe. I wasn't wearing makeup, my hair was in a bun, still wet from practice, and I was wearing a sporty tank top, running shorts, and tennis shoes.

She took both of my hands in hers. "I know. I'm sorry. It's not like you need makeup, you look beautiful." She kissed my cheek again. "I didn't want to worry you. You'd be stressed if I told you they were coming and you have to focus on swimming."

She was right. I would have over thought how to act around them since the last time that we were together, Grams' funeral when things were really rocky. Albeit, they finally did get better, I still had feelings of apprehension.

I squeezed her hand. "You still should have told me."

She arched an eyebrow.

"Okay. Fine, you're right. You're off the hook. Just this time though." She grinned. I nooded towards the apartment and asked, "Show me around?"

"You've already seen it!"

"Not with furniture!"

We walked around, Brittany had bought some new furniture for this apartment and kept some of her old stuff, she wanted the décor to match. Her pictures and paintings were lying on the floor where they were going to be put up. It was the beginning of August and she was going to start living here next week.

The four of us spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking things so Brittany wouldn't have to deal with a lot of boxes. The apartment was starting to take shape and it looked really great. We didn't talk a lot; we were all focused on our own tasks at hand. It wasn't awkward; I enjoyed their presence and acceptance.

"I think that's all we can do for now. Do you still have a lot of stuff left in Lima?"

"No, not at all. Thanks so much for coming up, mom and dad."

"How about we all go to an early dinner? Our treat?" Renee asked.

"Yeah, that sounds fantastic. Santana?"

"Yeah. Sure. I'm always up for food!"

None of us knew of any place to eat so Renee looked up a place on her phone and we decided on a burger place in the city.

Once we got there, we settled into a table, her parents across from Brittany and I. After ordering drinks, Brittany started a conversation about Matt. I think she knew I was still a little apprehensive with her parents. The last time with them finally ended well but you never knew what could happen.

"Is Matt already at school?" Brittany asked.

"No, he's camping with some guys. He's going to move in with a few of his tennis teammates to an apartment in a week and a half," Renee said.

"Is he still doing pharmacy?" I chirped up.

"Mhmm. He's going to apply later this semester for pharmacy school."

"When he gets in, he's not playing tennis is he?" Brittany asked.

"No, he said that he doesn't want to play tennis when he's in pharmacy school. He'd rather focus on the studies. Plus, I don't think he likes baseball that much." Jeff chuckled.

"Well, next time you talk to him, wish him my best." I hope that wasn't too weird to say.

"I will," Jeff said.

Renee took a sip of her cola. "So, Santana, are you excited about Brooklyn-Hale?" The way she talked was lighter than last time. It wasn't as timid.

I smiled. "I really am. I'm nervous though, it'll be hard to keep up with everything."

"You'll be able to do it." She smiled. "Do you have hard classes?"

"Ehh, I had a lot of college credit from high school that was able to transfer so I'm in some harder classes but I'm only at 14 hours so it shouldn't be too terrible. And luckily, I only have one class on Friday."

"That's nice, that'll leave your Fridays available for a lot of studying."

"Or sleeping," I added a more probable answer.

Luckily, the rest of the dinner went smoothly. Renee didn't express any hostility that she had last time we met. I felt like she was a lot more comfortable with me. She was proud of Brittany, too. I could tell. Jeff was the same funny, jovial guy.

We headed back to Brittany's apartment after dinner and we all parted ways. I went back to the Suburban to give Brittany some privacy while saying goodbye, I needed to follow her out of Hamilton or I'd get lost. When they were saying goodbye, I saw Jeff offer Brittany some money. Brittany shook her head and pushed his hand away. I smiled, I was proud of her. She smiled and hugged them and we both watched as they drove away.

The end of the summer was coming to a final close. I couldn't believe that it went by so quickly. I'd be moving into college tomorrow. Everything was all packed and ready to go.

But it was also bittersweet. I was ending my last practice here in Lima and I'd start practicing with a new team in just a couple days. A team full of high caliber athletes who wanted the swimming dream just as bad as I did. I was excited but I couldn't help but feel just a little scared.

After the practice, I thanked the Coach Langley for everything that he's done for me this summer. He told me that I could swim with him and the club team on any breaks to stay in shape. He then wished me the best of luck coupled with a big hug.

In the locker room, I caught up with Quinn as we were changing to go home.

"I can't believe this is the last practice that I'll ever swim before college," I told Quinn while pulling shorts over my wet swim suit.

"I know, it's so bittersweet. I can't imagine not swimming with next to you every single day."

"How am I supposed to stay fast without you on my case the whole practice?"

She joked, "There's bound to be someone who hates you almost as much as I do."

"Well, I sure hope so."

We gathered our bags and went to the parking lot.

"Hey, Santana, do you want to do lunch? One last time before we part ways?"

"Yeah, Quinn. That sounds really great. I'll just go home and shower. Where do you want to eat?"

We decided on Panera around noon. With all the swimming, I spent so much time with Quinn this summer. We never really hung out outside of practice, but in practice we always talked when we could. We'd also do cardio and dryland together. It was great to have someone that was at the same physical condition as me. We were able to push each other because we both know that college would be a whole new experience. It almost seemed like all the high school drama never happened, almost. There was always the lingering thought about it but I knew we had both grown up and were past that.

We slid into a table with our drinks and our pagers.

"I love this place so much. The food is so good," she said.

"I know, I could probably eat it every single day."

Our pagers went off; we got our food and returned to the table.

"You know, Puck and I broke up a few weeks ago."

I did know. I saw their relationship status change on Facebook and then Puck's successive depressing tweets soon after. I didn't know whether I should ask Quinn about it or not, it's not exactly the best subject to talk about between us. "Uh, yeah. I saw that. Are you alright?"

"I mean, of course it was hard at first. But we're actually on really good terms. Still friends and all."

I took a spoonful of my soup. "Why did you break up? If you don't mind me asking."

"I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't want you to ask questions. But it was just the whole college thing. We decided that it would be easier for both of us to not be in a relationship when we were so far away from each other. He's staying here and I'm going to be 6 hours away. We figured that if we still had feelings for each other at the end of this, whatever the end is, then we were meant to be. If not, we obviously weren't."

I nodded. "It's like that quote. The one where if you love something, let it go, if they love you, they'll come back?"

"Yeah, kind of. Except in a less clichéd, gay way." I rolled my eyes and Quinn grinned. "But I mean, we also did have different views on the future. Like, you know how he wanted to eventually come back here and raise a family. I don't want that, I want to be in a bigger city. That's why I wanted to go to Tennessee."

"Do you still love him?" I asked cautiously.

"I think so. He changed me. I was such a raging bitch, especially to you and it's just so different now."

I nodded in agreement. "But now, since you're not together, are you going to revert back to those tendencies?"

She looked up in thought and pushed her lips to the side. "I really hope not because I don't like that part of me. And I'm still really sorry."

I waved her off. "Stop apologizing. What's done is done. I'm glad we're friends though. Long course, world champ trials, it all would have sucked if we still hated each other."

She nodded and stirred her drink with her straw. "Are you thinking about it?"

I was confused. "…What?"

"The Olympics? We both made trials the last time; we can't be too far off now. The sky's the limit, you know?"

"I'm not gonna lie, it crosses my mind at least a few times a day. You heard my graduation speech," I reminisced and then optimistically added, "I dream of it."

"I also remember from your speech that you told us to chase our dreams," Quinn said with brimming excitement. "Anything can happen. The swimming world is unpredictable."

I nodded and I knew we both of us were visualizing ourselves standing on an Olympic podium, holding up the American flag with medals around our neck.

"If you had the chance, barring no injuries, would you consider turning pro?" I asked, curious as a cat.

"Possibly," she answered. "I think it'd be cool to swim for a living."

"Yeah, I could see that. I mean, 'Lucy Quinn Fabray: Professional Swimmer' has quite the ring to it, doesn't it?"

"It really does," she agreed. "What about you?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I love swimming and I'm still not burned out. Who knows how many years of swimming either of us have left though but Natalie Coughlin is over 30 and she's still one of the best."

"True, she is. I guess we'll just see how many more years I can take of staring at a black line at the bottom of a pool."

"Yeah. And it would be nice to go a month without smelling like chlorine."

"Well, that won't be anytime soon."

She smiled to her food and looked back up at me. "Hey, how are you and Miss. Pierce?"

I nodded, I was chewing a bite of my salad. "Brittany and I are great. She's already moved into her her apartment in Hamilton."

"Is she excited about teaching?"

"Stoked. But she's super nervous."

Quinn snorted. "I hate English but she actually made it bearable. She shouldn't be nervous, she's got a knack and she's so compassionate."

"I'll tell her that, she needs the reassurance."

"Tell her I said good luck too."

"I definitely will. She'll love to hear from you."

We finished out the lunch continuing our conversation. It was nice to open up to Quinn and know that everything was fine with us. We finally were the friend that I never thought we would be. In the parking lot, we even continued talking for 15 more minutes before realizing that we needed to say goodbye.

"Well Quinn Fabray, you've put me through hell and back but at the end of the day, I'm so glad to call you my friend and my teammate." I pulled her in for a hug.

"Oh my God. Don't make me cry, Lopez." She squeezed me and we pulled away. "You know? We'll always be teammates."

I smiled. "It's not goodbye forever. We'll see each other sooner than we think."

"Probably at the NCAA championships, repping our team, becoming some of the fastest NCAA freshman in history. And maybe in adjacent lanes in the finals of a backstroke event."

"I'm not sure about that."

"Why not? You don't think you'll be fast enough."

"No, if anything, I'd be too fast. I was faster than you at Nationals."

"But you didn't swim the 200 back and faster than you at the US Open," I countered.

She chuckled lightly. "Well, anyway. Every college has plenty of backstrokers, including Tennessee. They all need good breaststrokers. That's where I come in."

I nodded in agreement.

"You know what else they need? Fast mid distance freestyle. I could totally see you swimming the 500 and 800 free."

I shrugged. "Possibly. Anything can happen. Backstroke will always be my baby but freestyle will always be my swimming muse." I paused for a second and thought about what I just said. "Oh, God, I can't believe I just said that. I really am gay."

"Oh, you are so gay," she chuckled.

"Well, wherever these next few months take us, I can't wait to see you at NCAA's. I know we're making it."

Quinn nodded with a smile. "You know, Santana, keep in touch. I really mean it."

I smiled. "I will. I promise."

We both opened our car doors; we were parked right next to each other.

"Bye, Santana."

"Bye, Quinn. Good luck." I opened my door.

"Hey Lopez!" She shouted over her car. I averted my eyes towards her. "Luck is for losers but from you, I'll be a loser any day."

We're on the home stretch now! Next chapter is going to be a little different but I think you guys will like it. Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think!