Ever since that little incident with Quinn last week, I haven't really been comfortable in school. I've been hanging out a lot with Rachel and Tina as always, but also Mercedes. I was happy I had them in my life, especially Mercedes, even though Tina is a really cool girl, Mercedes is more like me. We connected better and had more to talk about. She knew everything, about what Quinn did, the note - everything. I needed to tell someone so I decided to tell her. I would tell Tina, but she would freak out and overthink everything like it was about her and not me. I felt really gormless for not getting what the note meant yet, I was still thinking about it. Brittany didn't give me any attention again, Quinn didn't either, not since that day in P.E. I had been focusing on Brittany a lot lately, trying to catch her attention for some reason. I didn't know why myself but I got used to her comments about me in the background and now that I didn't hear them I kind of wished I could get them back. It sounds really stupid but I can't get her out of my head. Not since that day in her car. And yet again, it's not that I feel something for her, it's just that I find her ever so interesting. I wanted to know more about her, that was it. She seemed like the kind of person you could have a lot of fun with, that's how I saw her. Everytime I gawked her way she would smile or laugh. She always looked happy, and I came to the end of my interest in her. It was hard for me to understand how someone could be happy all the time.

All day I had been with Rachel, Tina and Mercedes. We did see Quinn and Brittany a couple of times but we didn't speak. We sat outside today, it was sunny so we decided to sit on the benches there instead of staying inside school on our long lunch break. Our English teacher was sick and they couldn't find anyone to replace him with in time and that gave us an extra hour long break. When we stepped outside, I felt a quick feeling of apricity. It was sunny but yet there was a bit snow on the ground. Yes, weirdly, it started snowing in November. It wasn't much of it though. We made our way to the benches and sat on each side of the table. Me and Rachel sat next to each other, Rachel was in front of Tina and I was in front of Mercedes.

"Are any of you excited for prom or am I the only one who can't seem to shut up about it?" Rachel said.

"It's months left for prom so right now, yes you are" Tina commented.

"I don't usually get excited for things like that" I added.

"Why not?" Mercedes said and looked up on me and away from her walkman.

"I don't know, I'm not the type who enjoys proms. I mean, if I go, I'll just be bored"

"Not with us, we'll have fun together" Tina said.

"What do you say we ditch the boys and be each others dates?" Rachel asked and laughed.

"Come on, it's months left.. Let's plan our prom dates when it's time for that" I answered before Tina and Mercedes did.

She agreed and smiled. I felt bad for snapping at Rachel so many times, she was a nice girl. Very annoying from time to time but she wasn't mean. She was a good friend so I decided not to be a bitch. I guess her idea wasn't that bad. I didn't find any of the boys in school interesting at all so I would rather just go with a friend.

"Santana, what are you doing after school?" Mercedes asked.

"Nothing really, I'll study a bit I guess" I responded.

"Why don't you come with us?"

"Yeah that'll be really nice if you did" Rachel said and smile. She was so welcoming it made me feel like a child sometimes.

"Where are you going?"

"Shopping, and probably go see some movie" Mercedes said.

"You should really come with us" Rachel added.

I looked around and just then Quinn and Brittany walked out to the schoolyard. The first thing Quinn did was to look our way. I saw her say something to Brittany and right after, Brittany looked at us too and let out a laugh, a silent one for us because we couldn't hear them. I turned my face back to Mercedes and she was just waiting for me to say yes or no.

"Yeah, I," I quickly glansed at Quinn again "I'll come with you guys"

Mercedes gave me a look that made me sure about the fact that she saw me look at Quinn. Rachel and Tina were just sitting and watching us, smiling because I agreed on going with them after school.

"Oh no, not this again" Mercedes said and rolled her eyes.

I looked behind us and saw Brittany and Quinn walk over to us.

"Did you forget what I told you earlier, Rachel?" Quinn jeered and stared down at Rachel.

Rachel mumbled something none of us could hear. She turned her head back facing Tina instead of Quinn.

"Hey, speak louder" Quinn demanded.

"You can't tell me what to do" Rachel argued.

"You're such an idiot, Berry" Quinn taunted.

I could notice Rachel began to get pissed off. I didn't know what Quinn had on Rachel but she really was controlling as hell. It wasn't comfortable to watch for any of us. I looked at Brittany and tried to get her to look at me just once. She didn't. She pretended I wasn't present, she acted like I was a part of the wind - there but invisible. They walked away and Rachel just sat all quiet, nobody asked her what Quinn was talking about either. Although it was wrong and nosy of me, I had to ask her about it.

"So..," I cleared my throat "why is Quinn treating you like that?"

"It's nothing, really. She's just acting like she always is"

"Yeah but..," I thought for a minute before continuing "if you say so"

I noticed directly how Rachel got nervous when I asked her so I decided not to care, right now. It was obviously not the right time to question her about it yet. I believed that she would tell us about her issues with Quinn when she's ready to.

****

The next day was nothing I expected. Not at all. I walked into school with a rush, I was going to be late to my first lesson so I had to run a little. I opened my locker and pulled my books out before locking it again. Before I walked into the classroom I felt someone drag me back into the empty hallway. I turned around and before me stood Brittany and Quinn. I waited for them to say something before even saying anything myself. They looked at each other and smiled before talking to me.

"How are you doing?" Quinn asked, with a normal tone that made me a bit suspicious.

"I'm fine. I'm also late for my lesson so I'll go in now" I answered.

"Yeah about that.." Brittany said and stopped me by standing in front of me to block the way.

I was just surprised she said something to me today. She hadn't been talking to me since the car ride.

"What do you want?" I asked them.

"Your respect" Quinn.

"Who the hell do you think you are" I laughed.

"You need to respect us you idiot!," Quinn started to raise her voice "you come new to this school and act like you own shit"

She walked closer to me and gave me a soft push. This had to be why they left me alone for so long, so they could come up and start a argument big enough the whole school would probably know about it. I could feel that this would be one of those arguments.

"What are you doing?"

"Should I do it one more time, harder?," she teased "maybe then you'll know"

I scowled at Quinn and noticed her anger was on fire today. What did I do to trig her like this, on a morning? I haven't said anything to her that would piss her off these past days so I had no logical explanation. I peeked quickly at Brittany who stood behind me. She was staring at a different direction.

"Why do you hate me?"

"I already told you, didn't I?" Brittany answerd coolly.

"What did she tell you?" Quinn asked.

"I told her we hated her because we were racist" Brittany answered for me.

"Why would lie to her?" Quinn complained.

This started to become something about them two. I tried to sneak away and get into the classroom but Brittany stopped me yet again.

"I said that so she would stay away" Brittany admitted.

I looked at Quinn and she grimaced at Brittany. Her face furrowed and her eyes tightened. She walked by me and whispered something to Brittany. I looked at them and tried to figure out what the problem was and the fact that I missed the first half of my first lesson didn't make any of this better.

"I should go in" I said and tried to sneak away again.

"Wait," Quinn called "we aren't being mean to you because we're racist. That's not it" she said and I turned around to watch them both with their arms crossed and faces pointed at me.

"What is it then?" I asked and noticed Brittany had her bangs up with the ponytail today.

"We were.. How do I say this without making it sound like I like you," she cleared her throat and continued "impressed"

"Impressed?"

"Yes," Quinn said "we always scared people, even though we didn't do anything to them. As soon as they saw us, they knew they shouldn't mess around"

"Yeah?" I wondered "what's your point?"

"My point is, we're sorry if we made it sound like we were racist. I have no idea why Brittany tried to push you away, I'm not done with torturing you" Quinn smirked.

"So you apologize but then say you won't stop being on my back?"

"I said I was sorry for sounding racist, not for being mean to you," she took a step closer again and looked at me "I think it's time you stop fighting it"

"I think not," I said "you're so confused you don't even know what you want"

"Come on Quinn, can't we just go now?" Brittany interrupted.

"What the hell is wrong with you today?," Quinn raised her voice at Brittany again "stop feeling like you can't be mean to this girl. Remember she slapped me!"

"You already got your revenge" Brittany said and quickly glansed at me,

"Okay look, I don't know what you guys want from me now but can you just let me go to my class?" I asked.

"No," Quinn took me by the collar of my shirt "you're pissing me off"

"What did I do now?" I said and snatched myself out of her grip.

"Quinn leave her alone for now, let's just go" Brittany spoke again.

"This bitch needs to learn her lesson"

"What lesson? You psycho," I snorted "do you want me to tell Brittany what you did earlier?" I threatened.

"What did she do?" Brittany asked.

I looked at Quinn with a slowly appearing smile on my face, I waited for her to react so I or herself could tell Brittany.

"You shut your mouth" she took a step closer.

"Why? Are you afraid you won't be able to resist me again and lick my fucking ear?," I teased "time to get out of the closet, Quinn"

"That was nothing but a threat! You scum" she said and raised her fist to have it reach my face as she lowered it.

The first punch hit my left cheek with surprise. I noticed to late that she actually would sink to that level and hit me. I fell hardly to the ground as she pushed me down and jumped on top of me. The second hit was a hard punch that doubled me over and expelled the last bit of choked air from my belly. I felt a fair amount of pain from the gutshot she had given me. This was something I wasn't used to. Getting hit like this. I managed to get her of me and stood up. I stood straight, my eyes bulging with rage and glued on Quinn's angry face. I lift my hand up and swung it against her smirking face but she moved to the side so I missed it. The blow felt very sluggish and I felt that while I tried to hit her back. Before I even had the chance to dodge, I felt another body shot, this one met the edge of my ribs and it sent horrible ripples of pain through my shirt. I didn't let myself fall again, I made sure I wouldn't let her hit me to the floor again. Quinn went for another punch but I shoved her off. Seeing Quinn scoot so far from the hard shove I gave her made me even more confident. I quickly approached her and covered the distance between us. I threw three fast and amazingly hard slaps on the same cheek on her face and shoved her to the wall just to watch her fall down to the floor. The pain I felt by my ribs and my gut was hard to describe. I thanked God for the adrenaline kick I got and the rage that made me attack her like that. I looked at Quinn sitting on the floor with her head low and a weak feel of sympathy grew inside me. I glansed over at Brittany who just stood there with a face expression that made me wonder if she was amazed or scared of me, I couldn't figure it out.

"You'll see.." Quinn grunted out of pain.

"Will you stop?," I said and nearly helped her up but stopped myself from going there "how many times do I need to prove that you can't do anything that will hurt me more than I can hurt you?"

Quinn didn't say another word. She stood up and felt her cheek. Brittany's face was still very ineffable. I could feel the pain from the places she punched me pound like a heartbeat does. I just didn't want her to know I needed to see the school nurse. I guessed it showed on my face though, it was obvious when Brittany finally looked at me that she noticed something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I lied "will you let me go now?" I said and pointed my sentence to Quinn.

Just then a teacher passed and noticed something was going on. I looked at Quinn, waiting for her to answer me. She stood up on her legs and pushed me so hard I nearly fell, but I was steady. I watched her and I was two seconds away from slapping the living shit out of her again but the teacher held her back before she got the chance to attack me again. I looked at the man holding her as Quinn snapped like I've never seen her do before. He nodded to me with a understanding look on his face so I knew he wanted to me to leave before something worse happened.

"Walk away and fix your hair before you get to biology class, scum!" she yelled as the teacher held her back see you there, you'll regret this!" she shouted again. It was the last thing I heard before I got out of the hallway and couldn't hear anything from her anymore.