I had been a part of the cheerleading squad for two weeks now and everything went like a charm. I was good, I surprised everyone. I also became friends with new people, which was good. The only bad thing about it was that for some reason we had to wear the uniforms everyday, that meant my hair was tied up in a ponytail everyday too and I hated that. Still, I was having a lot of fun. I couldn't deny it. Things started getting better and I can't even believe it, but it was all thanks to Quinn, the person who made it all bad in the first place. Two weeks ago she said she would make up for everything she did if it meant I'll start liking her too - I said no. And I stand by my words. And she really had been standing by her words too, she had been making everything up to me. I hadn't talked to Rachel still since that day.. And I don't think Quinn had either. Every time I saw Rachel, she looked even more miserable. I've tried to talk to her, make her happier because I can be a good friend sometimes but no matter how much effort I put into it, she ignored me. So automatically, I stopped caring. She made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with me, so she can have it her way.
I sat with Mercedes during lunch and we ate and laughed about the fact that she still found it weird that I was in the same team as Quinn and Brittany.
"Mercedes, let it go!" I laughed "it's not like I'm friends with them."
"Oh but you are!" she laughed even harder.
"Even if I was, why is that so funny?" I smiled.
"Because they made your life a living hell for months, that's why" she said.
"I know," I sighed "but they're not bitching me anymore so I decided to leave it. I don't have any more time and energy to spend on them, you know?"
"I know, I know. I'm just messing with you" Mercedes smiled and took a bite of her food.
For a while we just sat there and ate our food. I was starving. I had to skip breakfast just because I was going to be late, again. I chewed and swallowed and when I was done I checked if Mercedes was too and she wasn't. I guess I ate a bit too fast because my stomach started hurting a little, but it quickly disapperad. I looked over at the door and I saw Quinn and Brittany walk in, as usual, Quinn with her head high and her hands resting on her waist. They immediately found me and Quinn smirked at me, a smirk that vanished two seconds later. They looked around at the tables and put their tiles of food at one of the ones close to the door. Instead of sitting down, they walked over to me and Mercedes.
"Not again.." Mercedes sighed and rolled her eyes. I shrugged.
"Hey, Lopez" Quinn said "whatever your name is" she nodded at Mercedes.
"You know my name" Mercedes said.
"I know, I just don't care. Really." She looked at Brittany and they both smiled "Santana, why are you sitting here?" Quinn asked.
"I'm eating lunch with my friend" I answered.
"You should sit with us, we're a part of one team now," Brittany said "we are your friends."
I looked at their pathetic faces and then back at Mercedes who looked like she was going to burst into laughter any second. I found it funny that just some months ago, I was their worst enemy. Now though, just because we're on the same team, they treat me like I'm a person and not something they play with on their breaks.
"Thanks but no thanks. I prefer sitting here, with Mercedes." I said and turned my back.
Brittany just looked at me, kind of confused and stopped trying to make me join them. This wasn't the first time they tried to make me ditch my friends - or friend, and go with them.
"You fool" Quinn jeered.
"Who's the real fool here?" I turned my face to her again and asked, she knew exactly what I was talking about.
"Don't go there," she furrowed her eyebrows and pointed her index finger right at my face "don't".
"Well," I slowly pushed her finger away from in front of my face with my hand and looked right into her eyes with a smile slowly appearing on my lips "I recomend you don't stand in my damn way then" I stood up, nodded at Mercedes who was finished with her food by now, and we walked away from Quinn and Brittany.
"See you at practice!" I heard Brittany shout. I didn't even bother turning back.
Practice was over and we walked into the locker rooms, all sweaty and very much in need of a shower. I took a towel and wiped a bit of sweat that was on my forehead. The coach made us work really hard today, and she was still a bit extra hard on me. I guess it's because I'm still "new". I threw the dirty towel into the basket filled with dirty towels becuase they were school property so they took care of them. I took my bottle out, went and filled it with cold water and walked over to my locker again. Just two lockers away stood Brittany with her bottle in her mouth and a towel around her neck. I drank from my water and put the bottle in my bag. I looked back at Brittany, this time she looked at me too. We had long eye contact until she finally smiled, a warm smile, she drank from her bottle again with a smile still on her lips and her eyes glued on mine and surprisingly, I smiled back. I quickly shook it away and shut my locker and walked out of there. I had no idea what the hell that was, as soon as I thought about what had happened, my whole face blushed and I felt really weird about it.
After practice, I felt really disgusting because I didn't take a shower yet and we still had one lesson to go. The reason I didn't take a shower in school was that I wasn't comfortable with the girls in my team yet. I was too shy to just undress and walk into the shower like the other girls. Happily, I haven't seen Brittany or Quinn naked yet. I wouldn't want to put that image in my head. I probably haven't seen them naked because I always walk out of there really fast, before the whole team even is in the locker room yet. Nevertheless, I made sure I put deo on so I wouldn't smell like sweat at least and I walked into spanish class, I looked around for Mercedes and found her sitting by the window with an empty seat beside her, a seat saved for me as always. I sat and five seconds after the teacher started talking.
"Hey." Mercedes whispered.
"Do I smell like sweat to you?" I whispered back and desperately waited for an answer.
"No, you don't" she laughed and shook her head "didn't you shower after practice?"
"No.."
"Jesus Christ, do I even have to guess why?" she said.
"Nope." I assured. She knew why I didn't shower. I just wasn't comfortable.
"Oh well -.."
"Girls!" the teacher, Mrs. Grace, interrupted "I can hear you talking, if you want to continue speaking, you can do it outside class!" she pointed at the door with a furious look drawn upon her face. She had a really short fuse.
"Sorry, it won't happen again" Mercedes apologized and looked back at me, holding herself from laughing out loud.
"Damn, what a bitch" I whispered really quiet this time. Mercedes just smiled as an answer, she didn't want to get into trouble again.
I looked around class and noticed that Quinn, Rachel and Brittany weren't in here. They took spanish class with the same teacher I did, Quinn and Brittany. The other teacher had a baby. Why would all of them ditch class? I mean, it was the last lesson, they could at least hold out to this one if they were that anxious to get home. After three long and annoying minutes, Rachel walked into class.
"You're late" the teacher noted.
"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Grace, it won't happen again" she said and glansed quickly at me and Mercedes and then sat down.
It's always the usual 'I'm sorry, it won't happen again' line all students, even I, used to make a teacher shut up. Most of them didn't shut up anyway. All I could think about now was that if Quinn and Brittany walked in right after Berry, I'd be suspicious. Even though I had no right to be, they aren't my friends nor girlfriends so I should mind my own business.. I couldn't though, I'm nosy, I admit it, so other peoples business, especially when it came to those three girls, became something for me to chew on.
Time passed and there was only five minutes left of class. Quinn and Brittany didn't show up. I was both happy and a bit disappointed about it.
"Class dismissed" Mrs. Grace called and everyone jumped up from their seats and rushed out.
"Santana?" I heard, I turned my back and saw the tiny brunette who had been ignoring me for a month in front of me.
"Rachel" I greeted.
"Can I talk to you?" she asked, her hands were in her skirts pockets and she couldn't stand fully still, as if she was nervous.
"Um - yeah, I guess.." I said.
"Can we talk somewhere else, not in the middle of the hallway?"
I looked at Mercedes who stood beside me and nodded at her, she smiled and understood so she walked away. Rachel walked over to one of the benches right by her locker and sat down. She looked at me as I just stood there in front of her with my arms crossed, waiting for her to speak. I didn't want to sit down. I wanted to see what she wanted from me first.
"You don't wanna sit?" she asked. I shook my head to left and then right, she understood that it was a no. "Oh.. Okay. Santana, I know I've been difficult these past few weeks." She looked down at the floor and she was rubbing the fabric of her skirt with her thumb and index finger, it was just another sign of nervosity.
"You really have been damn difficult, Berry"
"That's what I want to talk to you about, I want to apologize for everything."
I looked at her and she started to preen her hair. It's not like she was going everywhere, so I couldn't see why she was doing it. She looked like she was nervous about more than this. Her eyes kept looking behind me to see if someone was coming.
"Go ahead then." I said. I didn't plan on being easy on her, she had no reason to ignore me like that for weeks like I was the one who hit on Quinn. "I'm listening."
"Santana, I know that I've been more than mean to you by being so ignorant. I know you probably hate me right now, not only for ignoring you but also the note and everything. To be a little bit fair to myself, you were the one who first said you couldn't be my friend after our talk that day. But I take the bigger blame, I know it was my fault." Rachel paused, took a breathe and continued "I know that you maybe still think I'm behind the texts you got from that number, I really don't know anything about it."
"It's okay." I really didn't feel like telling her it was Quinn. She looked sad enough. "Your apology is accepted, no hard feelings" I sat down beside her now, a smile showed up on her face and her eyes lightened.
"That makes me so happy. You have no idea" she said and opened her arms to invite me for a hug.
"Don't worry about it." I caved in and her chest was tightly pressed against mine. I felt her fingers brush against my neck quickly before we pulled back.
"I can help you if you show me the number, maybe I have it in my phone?" she said, she was being overly helpful.
"It's okay, I don't care about it anymore" I lied, I knew it was Quinn, I just didn't want her to know about it.
"So it wasn't Brittany?" she asked.
"No." I answered.
"Are you really not interested in who it is?" she asked.
"I'm not, let's just leave it" I said and stood up, so did she. "I finally got my moms car to drive alone to school. She's not working today. Isn't that amazing?" I said just to change the subject.
"It is" she laughed, probably at my randomness.
"Yeah, well.. See you later?" I said and looked at her.
"See you later, Santana" she said.
I turned around and started slowly walking towards the main entrance. I turned around just to see if she had been moving and she was just standing there, watching me walk away. I turned my face back to the door some feet away from me. I stopped walking and turned myself so I faced her again.
"Do you need a ride home?" I asked, it felt like my voice echoed in the empty hallway.
"I- I'm supposed to get picked up by my dad" she said.
"Yeah? Okay, see you tomorrow" I smiled and walked away again.
I felt someone walking behind me as I walked towards the door again. It was Rachel, she covered the empty space that was between us and caught up with me and stood next to me. She quietly walked in the same pace as me. As we stepped out of school, I walked towards my car and she walked to the parking lot too. I saw a black car waiting for her there, it was on the left side, my car was parked on the right side.
"Bye, Santana" she said before turning to the left side of the lot.
"Bye, Rachel"
As soon as I got home I jumped into the shower without even saying hi to my mom and dad. I couldn't wait for any longer. I walked in to the bathroom, undressed and walked into the shower. The first drop of water hit my naked skin. I remembered the moment I shared with Brittany back in the locker room. It all seemed to messed up, or maybe I was overthinking? I used to overthink very often. The warm drops formed steam in the shower cabin. I started greasing shampoo all over my body and hair. The smile Brittany gave me kept replaying in my head as I cleaned myself from the disgusting sweat. The hot water was colliding into my skin, it released so much tension. I closed my eyes to prevent getting shampoo in my eyes. I saw Brittany again as my eyes closed. I don't know why I was stuck on that moment. I started to wash the shampoo off, feeling the water sending the foam down my back. Why the hell am I thinking about Brittany in the shower? I carefully rinsed my hair and turned the water off.
I walked to the bed with a towel wirled around my hair. I sat on my bed and began to think about what I wanted to do next. It was friday, none of my friends had plans. It wasn't late either, only 5.30pm. I took my phone out and looked up Mercedes number. I called her and waited for her to pick up.
"Hey San" she answered.
"What are you up to today?" I asked. I noticed I never say hello to her and laughed at myself.
"Nothing, just chilling at home. What about you?"
"I wanna do something, I'm bored." I said.
"We can go out, but like, what the hell would we even do?"
"Catch a movie? Go for dinner? I don't care, I just wanna go out."
"Alright, let me get ready. Give me thirty minutes tops, okay?"
"Yeah, I'll pick you up" I said.
"I can come with my car, I know your mom likes her car too much" Mercedes laughed.
"Fine" I couldn't argue with what she said.
"See you in a bit."
We hung up. I dropped the towel on the floor and took the hairdryer out from my drawer and fixed my hair. I didn't want to go out with wet hair, obviously. I mean, who would go out with wet hair? Especially when the weather was like it was. When I was done, I walked over to my wardrobe and took a light blue shirt, black jeans and put them on really quickly. I checked myself in the mirror and I guess I looked okay. I walked over to the mirror to put my mascara on. When I was done I looked at the clock and not more than ten minutes passed. That gave me twenty spare minutes to kill. I walked out of my room and headed towards the living room where my mother was doing some paper work. I poked her shoulder and she looked up at me.
"Going somewhere?" she smiled.
"I'm going out with Mercedes, thought I'd ask you if it was okay first" I don't even know why I asked her, I knew she would say yes.
"Are you taking the car?" she asked. Of course she would ask about her precious car.
"I was, but then Mercedes offered to pick me up instead. It's your lucky day" I joked.
"Come on, you know I'd let you borrow it anytime you want!." she laughed "I trust you with it now" she smiled and looked back at the paper in front of her.
I walked back to my room and sat on my bed, I took out my phone, I guess I could piss myself off by playing that shitty game again. Just when the game started, I felt my phone vibrate. It was a text.
"Hey team mate, any plans tonight?" It was Quinn.
"Yep. I'm going out with Mercedes."
"Oh. How about you come to a party instead?" she wrote.
"No thank you. I already made plans."
"Come on, you can bring your friend" she responded.
I thought about it. I really wanted to do something fun, I just didn't know care what. A party didn't sound so bad, to be honest.
"What kind of party? Where?"
"It's at this college guy's place, Puck, he's throwing a party at his house, he invited me, I can bring whoever I want." she answered.
College guy? Hell no. I wouldn't wanna be there, I can already imagine what kind of party it would be. Frat boys everywhere, trying to get into the pants of every girl who passes them. Drunk high school girls who are after nothing but that one hot guy every girl in there would kill to spend the night with. Or 20 minutes in the bathroom, whatever a skank prefers.
"No thank you."
"Why? Don't be such a bore, Lopez"
"Quit pushing me, Fabray."
I stopped and looked at the clock, Mercedes should be here in ten minutes.
"You should really come, it'll be fun to hang out with you. Kinda" she wrote after two minutes.
"Nah. Gotta go, clown" I teased.
"Beanhead." Quinn went on.
I laughed at her text and put the phone in my jacket, threw the jacket on and started walking towards the front door.
"I'm leaving!" I shouted and my mother waved at me without even looking up from her work.
I waited on my porch until Mercedes showed up. It was still about five minutes left so I waited patiently. I kicked a little rock away from in front of my feet. I thought about Quinn's offer, both her and Brittany were really trying to get me to be friends with them now. Then, a white car pulled in on the drive way. I waved and walked towards it, opened the door and sat down next to Mercedes in the front seat.
"Damn it, I didn't know it was going to rain" Mercedes said.
"Is it raining?" I asked.
"Yeah, a little," she said and turned the volume down a bit "so, where do we go?" she said as she pulled out from the drive way and to the road.
"I don't know, wherever you want." I remembered that Quinn invited me to that frat party thing so I decided to tell Mercedes about it. "Guess what, Quinn texted me and invited us to this party tonight. Some college guy is holding it. I told her no."
"Why?!" Mercedes nearly yelled at me. I was shocked.
"Because I don't want to go? Why, do you want to?" I shockingly asked.
"Why not? All kids in school go to parties, I mean, are they any better than us? Hell to the no, they're not." Mercedes said, she sounded a bit annoyed.
"I just, really don't want to go there.. But fine, I can text Quinn"
I picked up my phone and got ready to text Quinn, before I did, I looked at where Mercedes was driving and it was into the city.
"Don't do it, Santana. I'd rather not go there if you won't have fun. Plus, I was just ranting, I don't really want to go to a party today" she chuckled.
I was relieved. The last thing I wanted was to go there. I would probably go if the party was at someone from school's house, not some guy from college.
"You sure?" I said, Mercedes nodded.
"Oh I almost forgot, I asked Rachel and Tina to come with us, I hope that's cool?" Mercedes said.
"Of course, me and Rachel talked through the tension between us and I never had a problem with Tina," I said "where are we going? Dinner or movie?"
"Why not both?," Mercedes laughed "let's watch the movie first, and then dinner. Rachel and Tina are probably already waiting outside the cinema."
"Great." I said.
The movie ended and we were all starving. We were debating over if we should get pizza or chineese, and at last, we decided on the damn pizza. I wasn't in the mood for it but I couldn't always have it my way. Not with these girls, three against one didn't work. Not even one of them was on my side, chineese food is so much tastier than pizza but to hell with it, I gave in and went with them.
At the pizza place, I ordered one slice and a soda. I didn't even pay attention to what the others chose but obviously it was pizza, I just didn't care about how many slices they took. We talked and ate for half an hour and everything was really good. None of us wanted to go home yet so we just sat there, talked and laughed without even noticing the people around us. At one point in the middle of our deep discussion, I felt my phone vibrate. We were talking about Mrs. Grace's ex husband who they say was a pedophile, he worked at our school too along with his wife a year ago. I told myself I would pick it up but I forgot and another thirty minutes passed. The pizza place was crowded, maybe because it was friday, people didn't stop walking in. Teenagers, grown ups, old people.. All kinds of ages were seated in this restaurant. Some of them were sitting alone by the counters on the high white chairs with leather seats. Others were sitting on the white couches with red linigs by the window. Most people here came with groups of friends, just like we did. As time kept passing and we had been sitting at the pizza place for an hour and a half now, my phone vibrated in my pocket again. This time I picked it up.
"Where are you now?"
"Don't be such a prude, newbie. Answer."
Both text messages were sent from Quinn's number which I hadn't even saved as a contact in my phone yet. I tried to keep up with my friends discussion as I typed in my answer but I couldn't really, I lost track and concentrated more on what I wanted to write.
"I'm at Domino's with my friends. Why?" I wrote.
Two minutes later, she called me. I didn't know if I was going to pick up but Tina, Rachel and Mercedes were staring at me, probably wondering why the hell I was looking at my phone without picking up.
"Are you going to answer that thing?" Mercedes said, she hated my ringtone. She said it sounded like screaming hyenas. I don't even get why.
"Uh, yeah, yeah." I said. She made it impossible for me to click Quinn's call now, they were all staring at me. "Hello.." I said.
"Santana, what's up?" she said.
"I just told you I'm at Domino's" I jeered.
"Oh, right. Who are you with?" she asked.
"Rachel, Tina and Mercedes" I said.
"Rachel..," she sighed "okay.. Me and Brit wanted to come and hang out with you but we'd rather not spend time with your tranny friends" Quinn laughed on the phone.
"Go to hell." I looked at the three curious girls staring at me and continued "Gotta go."
"Wait!" Quinn said before I hung up "I want to meet you, today."
"No." I grunted. "Bye." I hung up.
"Who was that?" Rachel asked.
"My friend. Where were we?" I said to quickly change the subject.
"You never tell us anything, you're so mysterious" Rachel joked, or it sounded like she did.
We stood out for twenty more minutes of having fun. Or they had fun, my moment got a bit ruined after Quinn's phone call and I hope it wasn't obvious. We took our things and stood up. Thanked the employee that served us and walked out. The moment we walked out, my jaw dropped. Right behind Mercedes car was a black car parked. By the door that was pointed at the pizza places door, stood Quinn. She looked up right when we walked out.
"Did you people plan to sleep in there?" she said, but it was easy to see that her sentence was pointed at me. "I called you twenty minutes ago and you were there then and god knows how many minutes before my call.." she sounded annoyed. I was still shocked. Why did she come here even after I told her I didn't want to see her? And even more messed up, even after I told her I was with Rachel. I looked to my left to see what Rachel looked like and her face was clear. She was sad, again. I was pissed off. I didn't like what Quinn was doing at all.
"Quinn, didn't I tell you to leave me alone?"
"You didn't. You said you didn't want to see me, not 'leave me alone'." She walked a step closer to us. "Who says I'm here to see you?" her eyes quickly glanced over at Rachel. And then back at me.
"You are here for me! Who else? Mercedes? Tina? Are you here for Rachel? You stupid fuck. I told you to stop, I get it, damn it. You want to make things up for me. You are forgiven, just get the hell out of my face, will you?" I started raising my voice at her. People who passed us were looking our way. I didn't give two shits.
"Am I really though, you know, here for you?" she smirked. She looked amused after my reaction.
"You have no right to do this, it's creepy. You're being a stalker right now." I told her, and I wasn't lying. She was being too annoying for me to shut up about it.
"Are you sure?" she said again.
"Yeah? You're being a hardcore stalker. First you attack me in school, then you text me say-"
"Will you shut your nasty mouth?" she interrupted before I revealed what she told me about how she feels about me.
"Fine. Just leave me alone you asshole." I looked at my friends and Rachel didn't even look like she was here with us, Tina and Mercedes looked back at me with both amazement and what looked like sympathy drawn on their faces. "Let's go" I said and Mercedes unlocked the car.
"Quinn!" I heard a voice, it came from behind us, there was a apartment building right next to Domino's. I turned around and Brittany was walking towards us. "Sorry for being late, my mom wouldn't stop trying to make me go with her to my grandma's place. But I convinced her to let me stay." Brittany said and stood next to Quinn. "What are they doing here?" she asked her, one of her eyebrows raised a bit higher than the other one.
"I met them here by coincidence." Quinn said and looked at me with narrowed eyes. She walked closer to me, her face was a few inches away from my ear "I told you I wasn't here for you, newbie" her hand brushed against my cheek, I could feel Mercedes and the rest glaring at us. "Next time you try to reveal what I told you, I promise it'll be the last time you say another word" Quinn threatened and pulled away with a grin on her face. She looked at Brittany and they walked into the car, closed the doors and drove away. I remained speechless.