Santiago whistled his way through the corridor of McKinley High on his way to Spanish class. They had their test today and he was nervous for Brittany, not because he thought she would fail but because he knew she would be. He had a meeting with Figgins at lunch time about bettering his behavior at school after he was reported by an unnamed source (or, Rick as Santiago guessed) for harassment.

Usually he would act out and hunt Rick down but he was too caught up in thoughts of last night and even better memories of the morning cuddle he and Brittany shared when he awoke to bright blue eyes and soft lips to care about much else. He would never admit that he almost enjoyed the cuddles as much as the sex to anyone but Brittany though; after all he was McKinley's resident bad boy.

Waking up to her softly stroking his stomach and smiling at him like he was amazing and wonderful and all that other things he had never felt before meeting Brittany was the best start to his day he could have wished for.

Quinn texting Brittany and telling her to be ready by 7am so that she could collect her quickly dampened the mood, as he had to take a quick shower and leave before he was caught sneaking out of the house. Quinn even managed to ruin his day when she wasn't intending to. It was a skill that he wished she didn't have and it really pissed him off.

He hadn't seen nor heard from Brittany since then but she had been on his mind constantly. He already missed the feel of her body up against his, her breath against the skin of his neck and-fuck-he needed to stop thinking sexy thoughts.

Walking into Spanish he was met with the sight of Brittany sitting between Quinn and Puck. Puck had an empty seat beside him and waved Santiago over with a broad smile on his ridiculous face. He didn't want to sit beside him knowing that Brittany was so close and basically have to ignore her but he had no other choice. Reluctantly he took his seat.

"Dude, you better let me cheat off of your sheet," Puck tried to whisper but failed miserably.

"Fuck off man, I'm not giving your lazy ass any answers," he shoved Puck's hand from his shoulder and moved his chair a little bit away from him.

"Britt, how cruel is that? I bet if I was you he'd give me all the answers and more," Puck leaned back to give him a direct view of Brittany in all her beautiful glory. She blushed beetroot red and refused to meet his eyes.

He looked at Quinn briefly to be met with an icy glare and the fakest smile he had ever seen.

"I think Santiago has moved on to the next fickle fancy of the hour Puck, so please leave Britt out of your little attempt at guilting him into helping you pass. However, I'm sure Brittany has benefitted from his fine tutoring skills. Although judging by those marks on his neck, he's probably been too busy to offer you any of his services." Quinn smirked, glancing to Brittany with what he assumed was meant to be concern but instead it looked like she just passed wind.

"Q, stop it," Brittany's eyes were staring at his neck, a look of shock on her face.

He panicked and slapped his hand over his neck in an attempt for Quinn to unsee the hickeys he had forgotten to cover up in his haste to leave this morning. Of course no one else had noticed them but the Queen Bitch obviously had a hawk eye. Shit.

"Woah, what is with all this tension? Y'all need to calm your tits. I was just fooling around, Britt knows that. But bro," he turned to Santiago, "you need to tell me who this chick is you're banging because first it's the scratches on your back and now she's gone all True Blood on your neck. She is one feisty lady and the Puckster wouldn't mind getting to know her."

Brittany made a noise that was somewhere between a choke and a cough.

He hadn't told her about the guys seeing his back. Whoops.

"Puck, why are you always so inappropriate? Let us not discuss Santiago's extracurricular activities," she raised her eyebrow at Brittany's lowered head, "have a little more decorum."

Santiago was a little relieved that Quinn mistook Brittany's embarrassment for awkwardness.

"Sorry babe," Puck backed down immediately, probably hoping to get into Quinn's panties by pretending to respect her wishes. Once a sex shark, always a sex shark.

Santiago was absolutely and utterly mortified by the whole situation and all he wanted to do was throw his arm over Brittany and relish the scent of her shampoo to calm himself down. Fucking Quinn Fabray. Fuck her and her righteous high horse. Bitch.

"Good afternoon class, I hope you're all ready for this test," Mr. Schue greeted as he sauntered into the room, late as usual.

He was met the disappointed groan of the whole class.

"Wait up dude," Puck called after him as he made his way from Spanish to Geography. Brittany and Quinn left before them but not before Brittany threw him a secret delighted smile. That must mean she did well. Not that he was surprised but he was so happy for her.

"What?" Santiago snapped at him, frustrated at not being able to talk to Brittany properly all day.

"I was just gonna ask if you're going to the social tonight?" Puck held his hands up in mock surrender at Santiago's tone of voice.

"Probably not. They're really not my thing," he shrugged before resuming his walk to class.

"C'mon man, it'll be wall to wall with hot Cheerios," Puck jogged to catch up with him.

"Yeah, and?" he waited impatiently for Puck to continue.

"And you need to get more ass bro, you're obviously still hung up on Brittany even if you're banging some other chick and it's pathetic," Puck threw his arm over his shoulder as he casually tossed a passing nerd into a locker. The nerd grunted and groaned but they both ignored him.

"Uh, what the fuck? Why do you think that?" he was internally panicking, was he really still so obvious about his attraction to Brittany? Yeah, he was crazy in love with her but he thought he was at least doing a good job of hiding it from people at school.

"San, you've been making moon eyes at her everyday this week. You need an intervention. Even Mike thinks so and he's usually against us involving ourselves in problems that are none of our business. Kurt's being his usual girly self about it but the rest of us refuse to sit around and watch you pine after her."

Santiago almost froze mid step at the thought of everyone talking about him like

he was some dejected puppy dog.

"Puck, stay the fuck out of it. I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself without you sticking your Jew nose into my business. And I won't be at the stupid social tonight because you can all get fucked," he said before storming off.

Every year Coach Tanaka and Sue Sylvester teamed up for 'social' nights where Cheerios and the football squad would 'get to know eachother' to boost morale and encourage team bonding. Usually it ended up with someone fucking someone else and a whole shit pile of drama. Santiago went to his first one in Freshman year and hated it. He definitely wasn't going to go this year to have his so-called friends trying to hook him up with some random cheerleader. No way.

He took his seat in Geography, greeting Kurt with a strained smile and checked

his phone for something to do.

"Hi, so sry about d hickeys San + d scratches on ur bk. Q is such a bitch sumtimes + Puck is no btr. Did well on the test, must thank u again soon 4 ur help ;). Hw did u do? Q is making me go 2 the social 2night, u gonna come? I knw u don't like them but maybe u wud change ur mind 2nite. Wud lik even if it's 4rm a distance. Xxxxx"-Brittany had texted him a few minutes ago.

He couldn't help but grin like a total idiot when reading the text. Brittany wanted to see him. His stomach lurched in excitement.

"Hey B, don't worry about it. I knew you wud do great, so happy for you. I'll b der 2night 2 see u. Can't wait xxx." He tapped out his reply while shielding his phone from Kurt's prying eyes. He knew he was completely whipped but surprisingly he didn't care.

"Santiago, don't even try to pretend like that text isn't from your secret lover because the only time I ever see you smile is mid fight with Karofsky or when Brittany is involved," Kurt chuckled.

"Yeah well, she's pretty awesome," he admitted, there was no point in lying to Kurt about it.

"Hmm, I can tell. Blaine actually told me that she asked him about joining Glee club. I don't think the squad would be too happy with her," Kurt was doodling love hearts over his notepad around where he had scribbled Blaine's name.

"Well, I'm getting sick of the squad trying to control her. She's better than all of them put together anyway. She's already risking so much by being my girlfriend, I wish Quinn would just let her to her thing," the more Santiago thought about Quinn being such a two-faced sly bitch, the angrier he was getting.

"Your girlfriend?" Kurt ignored everything else as he spoke with a raised eyebrow and a very amused smile on his face.

Santiago flushed and coughed awkwardly, flustered at his slip up.

"Sorta…. We agreed just to, you know, do stuff with each other and no one else," he reluctantly offered up the information.

"Riiiight, you are so into this girl. I'm a little surprised and overwhelmed at the same time. It's like a love story of the ages, tough guy from the wrong side of the tracks falls for the innocent yet fascinatingly sexy bubbly cheerleader," Santiago could have sworn that Kurt was getting teary eyed during his little speech.

"Kurt, Brittany is my neighbour so your little story has a big flaw. And yeah, I am crazy about her. I…. I told her I loved her last night," he whispered.

Kurt squealed loudly and starting clapping his hands together grabbing the attention of the whole class.

"Sorry," Kurt apologized sheepishly when Santiago gave him an incredulous look.

"I'm assuming she said it back or your knuckles would be bruised from pent up frustration."

Santiago nodded proudly, prompting another ear splitting noise to erupt from Kurt. This time no amount of incredulous staring could get him to calm down.

"This is amazing. We must set up a double date soon. Blaine would love another excuse to visit that little diner down by the old cinema again. Ever since he left the comforts of private schooling, he has really gotten a taste for the quainter things in life," Kurt rambled.

"Yeah but we can hardly date, can we? We're a secret," Santiago sighed disappointedly.

"Oh… right. In that case we'll just have to have it in Blaine's father's home-cinema. It's hardly quaint but we'll manage. I better text Blaine to clear his schedule. Let's say, Sunday? It will be darling," Kurt had already sent the text to Blaine before finishing his sentence or waiting for Santiago to agree.

Santiago reminded himself to ask Brittany if she was free. He was cleaning pools

with Puck but would make himself free for the evening time. This was something totally worth ditching Puck for. Speaking of which, he decided to text Puck to let him know he was going to the social tonight.

"Knew you would bro. Can't resist some hot Cheerio action! It's in the bowling alley at 7. See u then douchebag" was the reply he got almost immediately.

He had to smile because Puck was right, he definitely couldn't resist some hot Cheerio action and Brittany was the hottest of them all.

Santiago arrived at the bowling alley a half hour late. He was always fashionably late, especially when he couldn't decide on what to wear until he did the unthinkable and actually asked his Mami for advice. She was all too delighted to pick out a fancy shirt and nice pair of jeans for him to wear with his black shoes. He felt completely overdressed but he wanted to impress Brittany, especially knowing that they wouldn't be interacting much, he needed to woo her with his looks.

He went straight to the counter to collect his bowling shoes which were decidedly less attractive than his smart shoes but he'd just have to deal. He headed up to the little restaurant upstairs that looked out over the lanes where they were meant to be meeting. The smell of greasy burgers and fries made his stomach growl.

The place was packed with students and Puck immediately shouted for him to sit at their table. He quickly scanned the room in search of Brittany and saw her sitting in a booth at the back with Quinn and three other cheerleaders he couldn't be bothered learning the names of. She smiled brightly when he caught her eye but only for a second before realizing she wasn't meant to. She faltered and then pretended to wave at someone behind him, which almost made him laugh when he turned around and the only person there was some random employee who awkwardly waved back and probably got a boner at the thoughts of someone like Brittany paying him attention. Quinn didn't seem to notice the whole exchange which made Santiago actually laugh out loud and Brittany gave him her best impression of a glare, which was awful. She was way too nice to pull that off.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Santiago asked Puck and Finn once he saw Sam sitting beside the Irish kid at their table.

"He's on the team now, he had try outs today at lunch while you were busy getting your ass handed to you by Figgins," Puck answered without batting an eyelid.

"What the fuck? He might die if he's out of the water too long, isn't that right Guppy?" he glared at Sam. This was the idiot who was still trying to go out with Brittany despite her turning him down. What a total fucking dick. Santiago felt the anger bubble hotly inside of him.

"I really like football," Sam muttered, obviously intimidated by Santiago's presence.

A vicious assault was on the tip of his tongue when his phone buzzed in his pocket.

"U look rly hot x. Courtney even thinks so, she keeps talking bout u :("-Brittany.

Immediately the anger melted away and he just slid into the booth beside Irish kid.

Brittany was jealous.

He wasn't the only one to feel threatened by other people. He guessed he could live with it knowing that she was his at the end of the day.

"I need food," he brushed off the entire conversation with Sam by picking up the menu and blocking him out of his view.

As long as Sam didn't try anything else with Brittany things would be ok.

He just needed to accept that other guys are gonna be attracted to her and stop being so irrational.

"This is your chance, if she knows you're on the team she'll definitely go out with ye." Rory continued what Santiago guessed was a conversation they were having before his arrival.

"Ouch!" Rory yelped, "What?" he glared at Puck who unsubtly nudged his head in Santiago's direction.

"Shut up dude," Sam pleaded with Rory desperately.

It only took seconds for Santiago to realize that Rory was talking to Sam about Brittany.

Well, fuck.

He'd just have to up his game to show him that Brittany was off limits.

Or, beat his ass at bowling and embarrass him in front of her.

Either was fine with him as long as it ended with him making out with Brittany at the end of the night.