Callie

She left the apartment building and jumped into the car after putting her bag in the back seat.

"Alright, to work we go." Callie said as she started the car.

The drive is about 20 minutes, which was convenient on days when she didn't feel well and had to drive home.

"I would've thought there would be more cars on the road by now", she muttered to herself as she turned on the highway.

She wasn't complaining though.

Callie's karaoke session usually started at this point. It helped her to relax, something her doctor said she needed to do more of.

Her older sister Aria was thinking about moving to Seattle, and Callie was subject to apartment hunts and the ranting that came after on the way home when every apartment was either, in Aria's eyes, over priced or came with unreasonably strict.

Day 6 of apartment hunting

"Can you believe him? How would anyone afford that? What made him think I make that kind of money? I don't make that kind of money Callie!" Aria practically squeaked out in one breath.

"Hey!" Callie said, her voice raised a little to get Aria's attention.

"Breath."

"It's ok" , a reassuring smile on her face.

"If you don't find the right apartment my door is always open. No pressure."

Aria took a deep breath and nodded, "yeah".

Callie had done a lot of running around the last couple months, trying to help her sister get things together.

It was a little tiring, but anything for her sister.

Pulling up to the parking lot and finding a space, it was only then she realized.

"Forgot my lunch", Callie said with a pout and face palm.

"This day is going so well." she said sarcastically.

Callie closed her eyes for a second.

"It's fine, the vending machine will have something." she tried not to make it a big deal.

She put on her sneakers and made it into the staff room.

"Good morning Sunshine."

Addison just got a glare in response. The optimism for a good day seemed to have rubbed off on the walk up to the staff room.

She sat at her desk and put her head in her hands hoping it would kill the headache just for a while.

By this time Addison got up and took a seat in front of Callie.

"You good?"

Callie just nodded.

"You sure?"

She moved her fingers slightly so she peep through the space.

"I didn't get much sleep last night", it came out muffled but Addison understood.

"Low blood sugar?" she asked.

"Low blood sugar", Callie confirmed.

"How low is low?"

She just got a shrug in response.

Sometimes Callie had days like this, but Addison asked to make sure she knew what to look out for and how best to help Callie.

Addison actually went to school with Aria so she was a little older than Callie, but they all grew up together and happened to meet back up when Callie started teaching at the school a couple years ago.

"Ok." she said letting out a puff of air.

"But you took your medication right?"

Callie nodded.

"Had any breakfast?"

"Yeah, the usual."

"Alright..." the bell cut Addison off.

Taking a long deep breath Callie rose from the desk and took her time to stop a dizzy spell.

"Call me if you feel worse, please", Addison pleaded holding out a bottle of water to Callie.

She had a habit of down playing how she felt sometimes.

She was diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes at 16 so most of her family and friends she had around got good at noticing unspoken signs when Callie was struggling.

"I will", vulnerability was still something she was working on.

Arizona

"Yes Tim, i have everything i need", that was the forth time she said that this morning.

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry", he said raising his hands in surrender.

"You know, I thought Mom was bad but you..." Arizona gave him a teasing smile.

She was glad there was someone just as excited and nervous as she was for her first day.

"Soooo...ready for the big day?" Tim asked basically bouncing off walls at seeing his sister so happy and excited.

"Yup, I am."

"Today is gonna be awesome!" her cheeks hurt from all the smiling she was doing.

"Good."

"Apart from that, how are you?"

"Um...I'm good." and it was honest.

Tim gave her a hug and a kiss on the head.

"I'm proud of you", he said with a sincere smile.

She hugged him back.

"Thank you", that held a lot of meaning to it.

Tim helped her a lot throughout the past year. She took a break from teaching for a while.

"Your welcome. Now go before your late", he said with one last kiss on her forehead.

"Pop, be good", giving the dog a kiss.

"He's fine. Right Buddy", Tim looked down smiling.

Pop walked away.

Arizona found it rather amusing.

"I'm going. I love you."

"Love you too."

That was her best friend, they didn't know where they'd be without one another. Two peas in a pod if you were to describe them, inseparable.

Taking a deep breath, "You got this."

And off she went. Joy was all she felt for this day, she got her first class at nine, and she only imagined a class full of eager students.

The drive actually was not that long. Arizona had done practice rides and eliminated all of long routes and learnt the ones that would get her here the quickest.

One more mini pep talk and she was out of the car and into the building to her first class.

"Good morning students! My name is Ms. Robbins, I am your new English Literature teacher."

"Let's begin!" she said with a charming smile.

And with that, class begun.

Not with the start she was looking for, but a start.

Arizona was met with more resistance than she anticipated. She wasn't necessarily expecting a walk in the park but truth be told it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be.

After staring at one another for a little over 3 minutes, Arizona spoke, getting uncomfortable under there glares.

"How about this guys..." she said now leaning on the desk, "We make a deal."

"Yes", she pointed at a student with a raised hand.

"Will this deal involve money?" the boy said with a hopeful smile.

"Ah, business man. Listen and you'll find out", she said with a smirk

"Tell me something the book in front of you caused you to look at differently, and each of you start the year off with 20 bonus marks."

Groans were heard all through the class.

"I know, I know. Might not seem like much now, but who knows, you just might end up needing it", Arizona said giving a nonchalant shrug.

Still didn't seem too happy, but slowly hands started to go up.

"Ok! They speak!" she said jokingly.

She got some laughs out of them

They were getting somewhere.

Lunch

Callie found herself at the vending machine.

"Why did you choose today to steal my money?" she whined.

"When you accuse them it makes them angrier" she heard a teasing voice behind her.

The joke didn't help her bad mood but it still made her smile.

Arizona walked up next to the latina and gave her a warm smile.

"What were you trying to get?" pulling money out of her purse.

"No, I still have money left, but here, I was getting a granola bar, number 23 right there. Maybe it'll like you." Callie said leaning against the wall the keep her steady.

The headache was still there, though it toned down to a much more bearable one.

The blond in front of her had piercing blue eyes. Definitely couldn't miss them...

"Um, so the machine does not seem to be in a good mood today." Arizona brought her out of her thoughts.

Callie resisted the urge to slide down the wall and curl into a ball.

It seemed like everyone needed her help with something today, she had been running around practically the entire day.

She just took a deep breath, she promised herself a long time ago that she wouldn't justify lashing out at people with having a bad day, and for the most part she kept that promise.

So she just made a joke back, "Well at least now I wasn't the only one who got their money stolen."

Arizona chuckled, "Well yeah, that's one way to look at it."

"I have some snacks i brought in today back in a drawer if you really are that hungry."

"No thanks, I'll let you enjoy", Callie wasn't sure she could go much farther running on empty right now.

"Next time", she wanted to talk more but she wasn't feeling herself today.

"That's fine."

"Wait, are you the new English Lit or Chemistry teacher?"

"Well, I'm assuming you're a teacher. If not, I'm sorry." Callie rambled a little.

"Actually, I am the new English Lit teacher. Arizona Robbins." she held out her hand

"Callie Torres. P.E." she took the offered hand.

"And welcome."

"Thanks, I'll see you around"

"Yeah"

School was finished now.

Callie came into the Break Room an our ago and just crashed. Addison had to call Aria to pick her up.

"Hey get up"

"Mhm"

"Come on, Aria is outside", Addison said trying to coax Callie off her lap so she could walk out to the car.

Callie had run herself to the ground today. But for a good cause, so she was happy.

She put in some extra work with the Rugby team at lunch and the basketball team in one of their free periods.

"Ok", Callie said in a child-like voice, still not actually making a move.

It kinda concerned Addison whenever she was like this because Callie wasn't the type to be quiet and passive. But she got better at being able to reassure herself Callie would be okay.

She picked up her phone.

"Aria, you're gonna have to come up for her."

"Yeah. ok. bye."

So they sat and waited.

Arizona was in the office across and saw Callie. She was concerned for her, but also intrigued by this Callie Torres. She wanted to know more.

Author's note*

So in this chapter Callie and Arizona meet briefly. Callie is having a struggle day with her diabetes. (I hope it isn't a problem if I include one of those days every now and then in the story) A little about Arizona got revealed in this chapter (I'm trying not to give away too much in one chapter) I promise it's going somewhere.