A/N: Thanks for all the reviews/alerts/favorites. I'm halfway into the next chapter already so it should be up fairly soon. Enjoy! :-)

Brittany and Santana had spent the majority of Saturday and the following rainy Sunday getting themselves settled, doing some basic grocery shopping, and just adjusting to life in the new apartment in general. After their lunch and trip to get their IDs things had run as smoothly as could be expected, mostly because the couples had both kept busy on their own, apart from watching a movie together Saturday night. Much to Finn's dismay it looked like he was going to be constantly outvoted when it came to romantic comedies.

Monday morning soon rolled around and they all sat at the breakfast table with an order from the bagel shop down the block as they discussed plans for the day.

"I'm heading over to NYU, I need to fill out a couple things and get my student ID." Santana said.

"Ugh, why can't you do that another day? It's beautiful today and I really want to walk around Central Park and go to the zoo." Brittany pouted.

"I told you Britt - there's only a week left before school starts and I want to get it over with so I can be free to explore the city a bit before I get too busy." Brittany continued to pout. "It's not going to take all day. We can go later."

"What about you Rachel?" Brittany asked, ignoring the last comment.

"Actually funny you should ask" Rachel said and Santana immediately eyed her suspiciously, knowing that she was going to try and get them to do something they didn't want to do. "I actually want to get ahead of myself for when school starts next week. There's this production of Les Miserables at a theater in New Jersey that I want to get to. I was able to find a ticket online yesterday. One of the professors at Julliard does work there over the summer and I want to introduce myself to make an early impression."

"Jersey? How you getting there?" Santana asked.

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"No."

"You didn't even hear what I had to ask you."

"I'm not driving you to New Jersey. Absolutely not."

"That wasn't even what I was going to ask!" Rachel protested.

"Then what?"

"I want to go alone to talk to the professor anyway. I was thinking maybe you would consider lending me your car."

"Have you lost the small shred of sanity that you previously possessed?" She asked, looking at Rachel like she had 6 heads. "No way, no how. My car is not going to be up for sharing. You should have brought your own."

"Santana it's not practical to have a car in the city. Most people don't do it because you don't need one. It was an extra cost that I decided wasn't necessary."

"Yet here you are needing a car and you haven't even been here for 2 weeks." Santana said with a smirk. "Not happening Berry." Rachel sighed. "No one drives my car."

"I've driven your car." Brittany shrugged and Santana rolled her eyes.

"You're different. Look, I don't trust anyone with my car, especially not you in a huge city that you've never even driven in, Rachel." she said returning to her bagel.

"I'm actually a very good driver. I have a perfect driving record and I promise to take excellent care and leave you with a full tank of gas." Santana sighed. "Please, I'll owe you one."

"You'd owe me a lot more than 'one' Berry." she shook her head.

"San come on, you know Rachel is like super responsible." Brittany said.

"No."

"I'll do your end of the chores and all the grocery shopping for a week." She pleaded. "And you can veto anything I want to watch on the big TV." Santana considered this for a moment.

"Two weeks, mine and Brittany's chores, including laundry." she said, thinking for another moment. "And I don't have to hear any Barbara for those two weeks either."

"That's unreasonable! I just want to borrow your car for a few hours!"

"I guess you don't want to borrow it that badly then." Santana shrugged, with a smirk while she sipped her coffee.

"You're insufferable!" Rachel said, slamming down her own cup of coffee. "Fine! I'll do it."

"If my car comes back with so much as a scratch on it, you're dead." Santana said, walking over to grab her keys and slide them over to Rachel.

"I still want to go to Central Park." Brittany said sadly.

"I'll go with you." Finn shrugged. "I have nothing better to do."

"Really?" Brittany said, her face lighting up before falling again. "Are you going to feel bad if I go without you San?" Santana hesitated for a minute, wondering if they were really the best pairing to go running around a new and tremendous city, but she shook it off.

"It's fine. We'll have plenty of other days to go. But I should be done by noon, so why don't I meet you over by the zoo at about 1 and we can do that part together? I'll call you."

"That's perfect. I'll go get changed and we can get going, okay Finn?" she said.

"Yep." she gave Santana, who was gathering up her things to leave, a quick kiss.

"See you in a bit. Have fun." Santana smiled kissing her once more. "Take care of my girl Frankenteen. And you" she pointed at Rachel "take care of my car!" she said before walking out the door.

Rachel offered to drop Finn and Brittany off at the entrance to the park, thinking that them trying to navigate the subways on their own might not be the best idea just yet. They gladly accepted and within a few minutes were happily walking through the park as she headed north towards the bridge to New Jersey.

"It's beautiful here." Brittany said with a smile as she looked around. "We didn't get to spend enough time here during Nationals in junior year."

"Yeah, it is pretty awesome. This huge park in the middle of the crazy city."

"I love it. I'm going to start coming here all the time. I want to live by it one day, so I can just walk here whenever I want."

"So Rachel and Santana have gone a whole 2 days without trying to kill each other." he smiled as they took a random trail.

"Yeah! I know! They'll be fine...I'm sure they'll be some bad days but I think they'll be ok."

"Hope so. Once school starts going we'll see how it will really be...and date nights..."

"Oh yeah, that's Wednesday. What's Rachel planning?"

"No idea." he shrugged. "I just hope it's something that doesn't make Santana want to kill her." Brittany laughed.

"You never know, but let's hope not."

"Are you excited to start school?"

"Yeah. Totally. I can't wait!" she smiled broadly before frowning. "Are you sad because everyone is starting school besides you?" He sighed.

"I feel a little bit like a loser, but you know...I'm still trying to figure everything out. I've been looking at schools, but I just...I don't know if school is really for me. I don't think that's what Rachel wants to hear."

"Well, you should really do what you want to do Finn." she said nonchalantly.

"You don't think it's important for Rachel and to be on the same page?" Brittany furrowed her eyebrows.

"What book are you guys reading?" He shook his head.

"No, I mean you don't think Rachel and I should agree on our future?" She shrugged.

"I mean, yeah obviously with some things but this is really about you. I mean it's your career and stuff, you should have a say." He sighed heavily.

"Look, don't tell Rachel but when we first got here I took a city test, for the fire department." Brittany raised her eyebrows and stopped walking.

"You want to be a fireman?"

"Maybe. I mean, I just can't see myself doing something where I'm going to need to go to school for a long time. I'm not cut out for office work or anything like that. I think I'd like that, you know helping people." Brittany nodded, processing the information. "I thought about taking the test to be a cop but you need two years of school and I don't even know if I could do that. High school was hard enough. Plus my dad was a soldier, he was out there working to save people. The army isn't for me but I feel like maybe this is a way to carry on his legacy."

"You should do it then Finn." she said seriously.

"I mean, I'm thinking about it. I have time. It's going to be a while before they start calling people. I just don't know what Rachel will think, but I'm pretty sure she's going to really hate it."

"Well, listen, I'm not going to tell her Finn. It's none of my business so I won't get involved, but you should talk to her. I mean, secrets in a relationship can be really damaging."

"She's already going to be mad I just took the test without telling her."

"So how mad will she be when she finds out the day before you start?" she asked and he groaned.

"Even more mad." he said resignedly. "But still, I'm going to give it a while, think about if it's what I really want and let her get settled in with school. For now I'm waiting on a callback from that gym. I have a good feeling about it."

"Score, will you be able to let Santana and me work out for free?" she asked with a laugh.

"Probably at a discount." he chuckled.

"Come on Finn, where are you?" Rachel said in a panic, calling his phone for what had to be the 10th time as she stood somewhere on the fringe of Harlem next to Santana's car which she had just crashed into a pole hard enough to deploy the airbags. "Damnit!" she said, trying Brittany again, but getting no answer. After 10 minutes of excessive phone calls she finally knew she had to bite the bullet, scrolling down to Santana's name. She took a deep breath before hitting send.

Santana was exploring a bit around NYU, having picked up her ID and filling out some paperwork with relative ease. She grabbed some of the course catalogues and fliers before heading over to check out the library. It was still only 11AM and she had some time to kill before meeting up with Brittany and Finn. As she opened the door, she heard her phone go off in her bag and stepped back outside to see it was Rachel. Rolling her eyes, she picked up the phone.

"Are you lost already?"

"Santana! Thank God," Rachel said in a panicked voice, causing Santana to furrow her brow. "I've been trying Finn and Brittany for the past 10 minutes but they must not hear their phones."

"What's going on?" Santana asked anxiously.

"Well...the thing is...I um,"

"Spit it out!"

"I have a bit of a problem."

"And that's my problem because?"

"Well, you see I kind of...I crashed."

"Excuse me?"

"I dropped Finn and Brittany at the park because I didn't want them to take the train and I was taking the streets uptown when this horse and carriage came literally out of nowhere! I swerved to avoid it and I kind of ran up on a pole." she said quickly.

"My car Berry. You crashed my car."

"Well yes, Santana I'm fine thanks for asking!" she huffed.

"What happened to my car Rachel?" she asked evenly.

"I wasn't going that fast but somehow the airbag deployed and now, while I managed to get it somewhat off the curb, it's kind of just...stuck." Santana put a hand over her forehead, trying to contain her anger but it was impossible.

"You deployed my airbags?"

"Just one of them!"

"Still!"

"And you kind of have a flat tire...and a fairly significant dent on the right side now." Santana began storming off in the direction of the apartment as she let out a string of what Rachel could only imagine were obscenities in Spanish. "So I kind of need help."

"Of course you do!" she spat. "I should have never have given you my car keys. I knew this was a terrible idea!"

"I am so, so sorry Santana. I'll call my dads and have them pay whatever you need."

"You are SO lucky I'm not near you right now!" she was fuming. "Did you call a tow truck?"

"I didn't know who to call and -"

"I have AAA, tell me exactly where you are. I'll call them on my way."

After getting the information from Rachel and threatening her life, she hung up and dialed the auto service as she waved her hands around trying to hail a cab. A few minutes later, a tow truck was on it's way and she was on her way uptown as well.

Realizing she clearly wouldn't be meeting Finn and Brittany, she tried calling Brittany's cell, getting voicemail a few times before she picked up.

"Hey baby, are you done early?"

"I'm done with school stuff yes, but now I have a whole other problem. Where has your phone been?"

"Sorry it was on silent in my bag. What's wrong?" she said picking up on the anger in Santana's voice instantly.

"Oh nothing big Britt," she said sarcastically, "Berry just crashed my car into a fucking pole!" Brittany gasped.

"Oh no."

"Oh yes!" she said. "I'm going to kill that midget, I swear to god, when I see her I'm going to go ALL Lima Heights on her. She won't know what hit her."

"San, honey, calm down, that's not the best idea right now."

"What happened?" she heard Finn.

"Tell him his girlfriend is a dead woman!" she screamed as Brittany relayed the story to Finn.

"Is Rachel okay?"

"Of course his little hobbit is fine. It's my CAR that it in trouble! She managed to do some real damage - my airbag deployed, I have a flat and I'm assuming there's a huge ass dent in it." she sighed with frustration. "Listen, you guys need to get up there. We'll have to do the zoo another day. I'm afraid I'll kill her without you around." she said the last part through gritted teeth. "I'll text you the address so you have it."

"Okay, okay, we'll find our way out of here."

"Oh and why isn't the moron you're with picking up his phone?" Brittany relayed the question.

"Oh, I must have left it home. Oops."

"Figures. Brittany just keep yours where you can hear it in case, okay?"

"Okay, we'll be there as soon as we can." Brittany said looking around and furrowing her brow. Just as soon as I can figure out where we're going." Santana sighed.

"I'll call you in a bit."

"Okay, but don't kill Rachel. Please?"

"I"ll try but I'm not making any promises."

Twenty five minutes later Santana was exiting the cab and approaching her car, ignoring Rachel to survey the damage.

"Son of a bitch." she yelled, stomping on the ground as she saw the huge dent on the passenger side and the flat tire with a bent rim. "For a fender bender you sure managed to do a ton of damage!" she screamed.

"Would you rather have me hit the horse?" Rachel said and Santana turned around, Rachel's eyes widening.

"Do you really want to start with me right now?" Santana said between gritted teeth. "Really, would you like to have this conversation Miss 'I have a perfect driving record'?"

"No thank you." Rachel backed down meekly. "I am really sorry Santana. I just...nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I already called my dads about paying for everything." Santana just shook her head and sighed in frustration.

"If I have to report this to my insurance, my rate will be ridiculous. My father will kill me."

"I'll take care of it, I told you. My dads are angry but they understand."

"Whatever." she said. "Here's the tow truck driver let's just get this taken care of." After talking with the driver and signing papers, she watched as her car was hooked up to the back of the truck. Her phone began to buzz and she looked down to see Brittany's name. "Where are you?" she asked.

"Well..." Brittany said tentatively.

"Well what?" Santana asked, frustrated. "What happened now?"

"Finn and I are kind of...lost. There's just so many trails here and we were trying to get up to the street where the train is so we didn't have to waste money on a cab and..." she paused.

"Britt?"

"Crap."

"What?" Brittany sighed.

"My phone is dying."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Not really? I forgot to charge it last night."

"So I'm about to get in a tow truck with Rachel and my beat up car and you and Finn are lost in Central Park with no cell phones, is that right?"

"Kind of..." Brittany said cautiously.

"Kind of?"

"No, I mean it's right."

"UGH!" Santana said. "Can this day get any worse? Where are you in the park?"

"By a field?" Brittany said and Santana groaned.

"Well maybe we should just try and go home?" She asked, trying her best not to upset Santana anymore than she already was.

"Just..." she said, covering her face with her free hand. "just stay there, Berry and I will come and meet up with you guys after we drop the car off. It will be an hour or two, but just get to the zoo, okay?"

"Okay..." she said skeptically.

"You have no idea where the zoo is do you?"

"No, not really." she said honestly. "But we'll find it."

"Just, ask someone if you have to."

"Yeah, we'll get there. We'll see you in a little-"

"Britt?" Santana asked, looking at her phone to see the call had ened. "Shit!"

"What happened?"

"Brittany's phone died and she and your idiot boyfriend are lost in Central Park without a phone."

"Where is Finn's phone?"

"He forgot it home." she said, shaking her head as Rachel closed her eyes in frustration. "I told them to meet us by the zoo in an hour or two so we'll have to add to our fun by going to look for them once we've dropped the car off."

"That's just great. I knew that was a bad idea, they haven't had a chance to learn the city at all yet."

"This is just so unbelievable! If it wasn't for you and your terrible driving skills, I would have been there with them already!" she yelled. "This is punishment. The universe is punishing me. The one time I actually attempt to do a good deed and lend you my car, you had to go and crash it!"

"Santana-"

"Don't! Just...don't even speak right now! It just makes me want to strangle you even more than I do on a normal day!"

"You girls ready to go?" the driver asked, walking over to where they stood.

"Yes, let's get this over with." she said as they climbed in the truck and headed towards a garage closer to their apartment.

An hour later they were on the subway making their way uptown again towards the park. They'd hardly spoken since getting in the truck and that combined with the desire to find Brittany were the only things that were keeping Santana's anger in check. Rachel, meanwhile, could hardly stand the tense silence any longer. Somewhere about halfway through their train ride she finally spoke.

"This silence is eerily frightening. Are you like plotting my death or something?"

"Something like that." Santana said curtly, continuing to look straight ahead.

"Santana, I've told you, I'm really sorry. It was an accident."

"Doesn't make it okay." she spit. "I'm more mad at myself than anyone right now, for ever letting myself remotely trust you to drive my car through a city you know nothing about!"

"I know plenty about New York."

"You know plenty about Broadway plays. You know nothing about the city itself."

"I've done a substantial amount of research."

"You and your research." she rolled her eyes. "Clearly you have absolutely no idea of how traffic operates."

"I can't apologize to you any more times. I'm going to take care of it and promise to honor all of the things I promised to do for you in exchange for lending me the car. What more do I have to do for you to get over it?"

"What more?" she finally turned to look at her, with narrowed eyes. "First, you need to back the fuck off me and stop trying to force me to get over the fact that you just crashed my 3 month old car. Second, focus on finding Brittany and that oaf you call a boyfriend. And third, just shut up and let it pass a little!" she said loudly enough where the other passengers turned to look and she glared at them, muttering in Spanish once more. Rachel looked around embarrassedly and her shoulders sank.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"Don't act like you don't hate me just as much." Santana said.

"So much for a good start." Rachel said sadly. "I was just hoping we could get off on the right foot, get along, maintain a decent friendship while we live together." she shrugged. "I'm sorry if that thought is so ridiculous to you.

"It is ridiculous. It's ridiculous because that implies that you and I are friends, which we aren't. We never have been and I'm pretty sure we never will be so maybe you should just grow up, find some other losers to associate with and get over it!" she snapped harshly and Rachel swallowed looking defeated.

"The four of us moved to this big city together, I just thought it made sense for us to stick together."

"Well you thought wrong. That's the beauty of this big city, you can find plenty of other people to force your torturous idea of friendship on! You've been trying with me for 3 years, maybe you should finally learn that it's never going to happen!"

"If that's how you feel." she said meekly, looking down at her hands. "We'll work together to find Finn and Brittany now, but I'll back off."

Santana sighed and fell back into her seat, unwillingly feeling heavy guilt for the last comments. She knew she was a bitch and that she often took it too far, but Rachel just seemed to know exactly how to push her buttons and infuriate her. Closing her eyes and taking a calming breath she knew she'd need to apologize later but right now she was far to angry and decided to focus her thoughts on the task at hand.

"Please Brittany, just be at the zoo so this nightmare day can end." she thought to herself, hoping that maybe just this one piece would go smoothly.