A/N: Hello, hello! I got a better program that Notepad, so hopefully it works out better! Let's just hope for the best. Anyway. This chapter will focus more on Jess and Santana. Set during season mid-season one. So Santana is in the Glee club, but hasn't really, you know, warmed up to anyone besides the unholy trinity.

"You cannot expect anyone here to believe that."

Jess was quickly beginning to realize that sitting with the cheerios at lunch, despite Brittany's assurance that it was going to be "fun," was a mistake. The brunette couldn't keep her mouth shut, and she should've known that wouldn't mesh well with the 'popular kids'. She certainly knew it now as she glared at a slightly surprised Santana Lopez. She could tell that the Latina wasn't used to being called out on anything.

"Excuse me, Lance Bass, don't you have a rehearsal with the rest of NSYNC to get to?" Santana snapped back, referring to Jess's appearance. She wasn't the most feminine of girls, especially in style, with her close-cut brown hair and her boyish clothing, and one of Santana's favorite things to pick on was the fact that she looked like she belonged in a boy band. It didn't bother Jess all that much; in fact, nicknames, intended to be hurtful or not, never interested her much. So when the cheerio 'insulted' her and Brittany said, "Good one, San," Jess simply rolled her eyes.

"You know you aren't fooling anybody with your 'I just love Glee club so much' act, Santana; literally everybody knows that Coach Sylvester sent you, Quinn, and Brittany to the Glee club to be her little spies."

"And what do you care, Howie Dorough? You're not even in the Glee club." It was true. Despite the fact that her close friend, Kurt, was in it, and had insinuated numerous times that she should be as well, she wasn't in the Glee club. When it came to singing in front of other people, she was shy. Kurt had never even heard her sing, but he certainly wanted to find out. Jess had refused, but she knew that Kurt was going to wear her down eventually.

Jess leaned forward, lowering her voice. "I care because that club means everything to some of my closest friends, and I'll be damned if I let Quinn Fabray and her little minions ruin it for them," she snarled. She knew she'd struck a nerve with the 'minions' comment as soon as she saw Santana's right eye twitch.

"First of all," Santana began, leaning forward as well and looking Jess in the eye, "I am not Quinn Fabray's minion, and you'd do best to remember it." The death glare Jess was receiving was almost enough to convince her that backing down was the best option, but Jess was always more stubborn than she was scared. "Second, do you think I'm scared of you? Is that what I'm getting from this? Because let me tell you something, Jesse McCartney. Santana Lopez isn't scared of anyone."

"Oh, I wasn't trying to scare you, Santana," Jess replied, an insincerely sweet smile spreading across her face. "I was simply letting you know. So that things don't come as a surprise to you later on. Honestly, I was doing you a favor."

Santana rolled her eyes at Jess and opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Brittany, who was sitting to the right of Jess, clearing her throat. The two girls who'd previously been at each other's throats turned their attention to the blonde as she said, "Lunch is almost over and you guys ruined all the fun we were going to have."

Jess pursed her lips, then sighed. "I'm sorry, Brittany," she apologized, glancing at Santana with a look that said, "You apologize, too."

Santana just stared back for a second before turning her gaze back to Brittany. "I'm sorry, Britt," she said, reaching her hand out and laying it on top of Brittany's. "But I told you not to invite the freaks to our table."

"I was going to talk to you guys about something, but you started fighting before I could get to it," Brittany pouted, and when Jess asked, "What were you going to talk to us about?" she replied with, "Puck invited me to a party he's having at his house for the glee club, and he wanted me to invite you guys for him."

Jess rolled her eyes at the look of disgust on Santana's face. "Yeah, real convincing. I can feel the Glee club love just radiating from you," she teased, giving the girl another sickeningly sweet smile in reply to the glare she received for her comment. "Anyway," she continued, turning her head to look back at Brittany. "Why'm I invited? I'm not in the Glee club."

Brittany shrugged. "You hang around all of us all the time anyway, and Puck said you probably would be soon enough," she explained.

Jess nodded in understanding, pursing her lips. Nobody'd heard her voice, but they were all convinced she was going to be in the club with them. She didn't know what Kurt was telling them, but she didn't have the energy to argue about it.

"Well, despite the fact that a bunch of losers are going to be there, I'll go. Puck's parties are usually bangin' no matter what obstacles are thrown their way." Santana shrugged, standing up and grabbing her tray before turning and making her way to the trash can.

"I suppose I'll go as well," Jess said. "Kurt'd probably drag me there anyway, even if I said no."

Brittany smiled and grabbed her tray, standing up and walking toward the trash can as well, leaving Jess at the table to finish her tray of food by herself.

Beer and games, Jess had found out, made a fantastic party. Everyone, including her, were on at least their seventh drink by the time Puck announced that they were going to be playing Seven Minutes in Heaven.

"As host, I will go first," Puck said with a smirk as he pulled one of the slips of paper that they'd all written their names on out of the hat. Looking down at it, he read it and grinned. "Finny, buddy, you're up."

Finn blinked and stared up at Puck for a second, processing what was happening. The poor boy had gotten pretty drunk, and it was obviously messing with his brain functions. Something apparently clicked in his head eventually, though, because he stood up and followed Puck to the closet a few seconds later.

Jess turned her head slightly toward Kurt, still eying the closet door after it shut behind the two. "Think they're gonna make out?" she joked, her gaze switching from the door to Kurt.

A chuckle escaped Kurt's throat as he leaned back against the couch they were both sitting on. "It'd be a dream come true," he replied, wiggling his eyebrows as he looked over at her.

Laughing, Jess turned her attention away from Kurt and began looking around the room while she waited for the seven minutes to be up. Mercedes was sitting on the floor, listening to Rachel rant about something- Jess didn't care enough to listen- passionately and wearing a look that said, "Please stop talking." Jess smiled at the scene before moving on. Artie and Tina were talking; it sounded like flirting. Mike and Matt were talking as they sat in a couple of chairs across the room, a little bit behind Mercedes and Rachel. Quinn, Santana, and Brittany were talking amongst themselves on the floor a few feet in front of the couch she and Kurt were sitting on.

Before she knew it, the seven minutes were up and the two jocks emerged from the dark closet. Puck turned around to face Finn and said, "Dude, pick the next person to go in there with someone."

"Uh." Finn began to scan the room, his gaze falling first on Jess. "Jess," he decided before making his way over to Quinn and sitting beside her, draping his arm over her shoulder.

Jess stood up, chuckling when she heard, "Don't pick me next," from a panicked Kurt who hadn't even wanted to play in the first place. She walked over to the hat that Puck was holding out for her and ruffled the papers around for a moment before pulling out an individual slip. When she read it, she nearly groaned. "Santana."

At the mention of her name, Santana perked up, looking over to see what was going on. She'd been too caught up making fun of Finn and his time in the closet with Puck and had forgotten that it was still going on. When she realized who had said her name, she swore under her breath, reluctantly standing up. "Let's get this over with, Nick Lachey," she said as she walked over to the closet and opened the door, not waiting for Jess as she entered the closet.

Jess followed her, shutting the door behind her once she'd entered the closet. There was no light bulb, so it was pitch black. It was a good thing it'd been cleared out before the party, because Jess was clumsy, and she surely would've tripped if there'd been anything in there with her besides Santana.

"So," Jess began. Even though she severely disliked Santana, she disliked awkward silences more. "Having fun?"

"Your small talk needs some work," was all Santana said in reply, and so Jess gave up on trying to talk.

About a minute later, Santana spoke again. "I am."

"You're what?"

"Having fun. Even with your Backstreet Boy ass around."

"Are you calling my ass pretty?" Jess joked, grinning.

"Shut it, Joey McIntyre," Santana replied, rolling her eyes.

Jess decided that now was the time to bring up something she'd wanted to talk about for a good amount of time now. "You do realize that these aren't insults, right? You're basically just calling me attractive," she pointed out.

Silence was her only answer. Jess furrowed her eyebrows, but didn't have time to say anything else. At that moment, Puck opened the door, said, "The seven minutes are up," and moved out of the way so that she and Santana could reenter the room. As Jess made her way back to the couch and Santana made her way back to her friends, Jess glanced back at Santana, wondering why she hadn't gotten a snappy retort from the dark-haired girl.

A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review. I want to know what you all think. And it helps get me motivated to write more, if you like it. And if you have any requests on which of Jess's relationships you'd like to be explored more, feel free to request it. I might get some motivation for it, especially if I know someone wants to read about it. Until next time!