Love is a Battlefield
Santana Lopez was nothing short of amazing when it came to the world of competition paintball. Her team, The Riots, were the number 1 contenders to winning the Ohio State Paintball Championship that would be held in a little over 3 weeks time. The only team standing in their way was the Showstoppers. Having never played them before, she didn't know what to expect, only that they were the number 1 team in the Ohio Western District. It was 2 days until the 3 week Paintball Camp. Directors and competitors decided that they would hold workshops and training sessions in a summer camp environment to bring the teams together from all over the state. On the last weekend of camp they would hold the competition. The two day event would consist of 20 teams battling it out and the winners of each would move up in the brackets for the championship match.
The second Thursday into summer break, and Santana being the captain of her team, sent out a mass text message to her teammates for one last practice before they left the next day for the two and a half hour drive to Columbus for check-in and the annual meet-up dinner.
The brunette pulled into the parking lot at the field 15 minutes early and spotted her Co-captain and best friend Puck just getting out of his Avalanche. Santana jumped out of her Tacoma and walked around to the back before dropping the tailgate to retrieve her duffle bag that held all of her gear.
"Hey Lopez! You need a hand with anything?" Puck called from a few spots over.
"Yeah can you grab this box and put it over on the bench by the field?" Santana replied.
"No problem." Puck threw his own duffel bag over his shoulder and walked over taking the extra box from Santana's truck before making his way towards the field, Santana right behind him.
Puck set the box on the table that was just outside the fenced off area of the paintball field and began to retrieve his mask and gun from his bag. Santana set her bag down before she sat up on the table and pulled out her phone. Everyone had texted her back and said they would be there. She put her phone in the side pouch of her duffle bag and started to pull up her hair into a high ponytail before snagging the band around her wrist to tie it off.
"You ready to kick some ass these next few weeks?" Puck said rather excitedly.
"Hellz yes I am! We are gonna win this whole damn thing!" Santana replied, putting her fist out for Puck who gladly returned the fist bump.
"Damn straight! Well maybe not straight for you but hell, maybe we will meet some hotties while we are over there." Puck stated with a grin on his face.
"You mean I will be getting all the hotties while your ass watches from the sidelines!" Puck smirked.
"Dream on Lopez. You know the girls can't resist the Puckster!"
Santana could only laugh. "Yeah keep telling yourself that."
Puck playfully shoved her shoulder.
Santana would never admit it to anyone but she always admired Puck. He could be a bit of an ass most times and walked around with an 'I don't give a fuck" attitude more often then not, but he always had her back and the two of them had been best friends since sixth grade.
FLASHBACK
Santana and her family had just moved to Lima after her dad was offered a job as Chief of Surgery at Lima Memorial Hospital. A few of the bullies wanted to make a point to single out the fact that she wasn't wearing a dress like all of the other girls in the class. Santana never took crap from anyone and she certainly wasn't about to let the badass reputation she made for herself at her old school go to waist. When one of the boys in the group decided to call her a dyke, Santana immediately swung landing a perfect punch to the boy's jaw and knocking him to the ground. The two other boys with him immediately grabbed Santana holding both of her arms while the first returned to his feet. Clutching his jaw with his left hand, he winded back his right to take a swing at Santana. Before his hand made contact, a mohawked boy grabbed his fist and swiftly maneuvered his arm behind his back. He applied enough pressure to put him in a simple wrist lock.
"Now now Jesse, didn't your mom ever tell you it's rude to hit a girl?" Puck mocked the now cringing boy.
"This has… nothing to do with you Puckerman!" Retorted through gritted teeth.
"Oh it has everything to do with me St. James! First of all, you don't hit a girl and second, my older sister is gay so think twice before you use that word as an insult for someone who may or may not be gay based off of what they are wearing!"
Applying a little more pressure to the wrist lock and hearing a slight whimper, Puck continued, now addressing the two boys. "Let her go before I beat all of your asses!" Upon hearing that, they released Santana who had been tugging to have them let her arms go.
"Get the fuck outta my face before I break both of your noses!" Santana spat while turning to face the two boys wearing a signature HBIC glare.
They looked at one another and then to Puck who still had a hold of St. James.
"I believe the lady told you to beat it! If the bruise on your friends face is any indication of what will happen to both of you, I suggest you take the opportunity to leave while you can." Puck stated calmly. With that both boys turned around and walked away.
"I think it's about time you apologized to…" Puck looked up from St. James to the brunette.
"Santana… Lopez." She said without looking away from the boy Puckerman still had firmly in his wrist lock.
"Ms. Lopez." Puck repeated her last name after looking back down to Jesse and applying another small amount of pressure to get him to cooperate.
Letting out another small whimper of pain, the boy complied with the command. "I-I'm sorry!"
Santana leaned down to the boys face with a smirk. "You're lucky he stopped you from hitting me. Your ass would've been on the ground if you would have gotten that punch in and believe me… I would have broken more then your jaw."
Santana straightened back up and nodded her head to mohawked boy. With that, Puck released his hold on St. James and shoved him forward.
"If you ever use that word to insult someone, or you wanna pick another fight with my girl here, I'll make sure that wrist is broken." Puck glared at the boy as he stared back not saying anything. "Do you understand me St. James?" Puck asked. Jesse only nodded.
"Get the hell outta my sight!" Puck gestured down the hallway. The boy looked at Santana one more time before gripping his wrist and turning on his heals to go to the nurses office.
Santana turned to Puck once the boy had rounded the corner and was out of sight.
"Thanks, I appreciate the help even though I could have handled those assholes on my own."
"There isn't any doubt in my mind that you could have kicked their asses, but the comment about you being a dyke strikes a nerve with me and I wasn't about to let the homophobic idiot treat you like that whether you're gay or not. I'm Noah by the way. Puckerman, but everyone calls me Puck." he stated holding his hand out.
Santana reached out to return the greeting. "Thanks, and I am by the way… gay."
Noah nodded his head. "I'm cool with it. Kinda bummed because you're super hot, but I guess you and I could get the ladies together." Santana quirked an eyebrow at the Puck's statement.
"What happened to the rather disgusting display of a gentleman I just saw two minutes ago? Santana laughed.
"Hey I got my badass reputation to uphold here too." He replied with a smirk.
"Touché!" They both laughed.
END FLASHBACK
"What's in the box anyways?" Puck asked as Santana was reaching around her waist to buckle her pod belt.
"New uniforms. I figure all that extra money from the sponsor was just sitting there after our tournament and camp fees so why not put it to good use." Puck showed off his signature goofy grin.
"Nice!" Noah exclaimed reaching to open the box. Santana anticipated his reaction to the information and punched him in the shoulder before he could fold back the top of the box.
"What the hell was that for?" he shrieked rubbing his arm.
"Wait for the rest of the team jackass!" She retorted.
"I'm gonna mark your ass so good for that one Lopez!"
"Bring it on." They both smirked.
Santana looked over from Puck to see the rest of the team walking over from the parking lot, all holding their team duffel bags.
As the group approached the table where Santana and Puck were standing, everyone gave a simultaneous "What's up" to each other.
Quinn walked over and put her bag on the table and gave a one armed hug to Santana.
"What's shakin' Fabray?" Santana asked.
"Oh you know, get to hang out with my favorite people for 3 weeks. We so need our 'Lopez/Fabray' tournament ritual. I was able to snag a bottle of vodka from my mom's liquor cabinet."
"I love how my badassness has rubbed off on you so much over the years. I'm so down!" Santana laughed as she high fived the blonde.
"You know I was a badass before you and I became friends right?" Quinn said with a raised eyebrow.
Santana rolled her eyes. Both girls laughed at each other.
Quinn sat down on the bench and began to take her gear out of her bag while everyone else did the same. Santana straightened up to address the rest of her teammates.
"Alright guys, last practice before the big tournament so lets make the most of it." She began. "I'm not gonna get all mushy and shit but you guys have been awesome with keeping up with the commitment to our team and it's been one hell of a great time!"
Everyone cheered their approval of the statement.
"You mean underneath those devil horns, Satan actually likes having us around?" Mercedes asked sarcastically.
"Shut it Wheezy… I can still kick your ass!" The brunette retorted with a sly grin on her face. Mercedes just laughed.
"Am I gonna have to break up a fight here or are you two gonna cool it?" Dave playfully cut in.
Both Santana and Mercedes looked at him with raised eyebrows and an obvious 'We can always double team you instead' look plastered on their faces.
Dave threw is hands up in surrender with a smile on his face while everyone else chuckled at the exchange.
"Alright so what's on the agenda for today's practice?" Sam asked still laughing.
"We won't go too long for today, maybe play a few games of capture the flag and probably end with King of the Hill." Santana answered.
Everyone nodded excitedly.
Paintball always was the highlight of everyone's day and now they would have 3 weeks full of it. When Santana mentioned she was going paintballing with her brother and sister and their cousins about a year ago, everyone in the group was really interested in going as well. Santana had invited them all to join which made it easy to split up teams and have more people to play with. They all loved it so much they decided to start up their own team and have been playing almost everyday after school and on the weekends ever since. Shortly after their first tournament as a team, Santana's mom offered to have her Law Firm sponsor the team which made it easy to get them their equipment and uniforms.
"Hey San, sorry I'm a few minutes late. The guy at the sporting goods store had to track down our shipment of paintballs." Artie said as he walked up with three cases of paintballs. "I have the other 27 boxes in my car."
"It's cool Artie, we were just saying that we were gonna have a light practice today." Artie nodded to Santana and put the boxes down on the table. "These should get us through today's practice then."
"Awesome, I also have an early Christmas present for you guys. I figured our team uniforms have gotten a little ragged over the last few months so I had these made for us." Santana stated as she reached into the box and pulled out The Riots signature dark blue and purple colored long-sleeved jerseys, lifting it up to show off their team name printed in AR Destine font on the front before turning it around to show them the back. Lopez was printed on the back along with the number '1' right below it.
Everyone looked at the new jerseys eyes wide and their jaws practically hitting the floor.
Santana threw her new jersey, gloves, and pants into her bag and began to pull the rest of the teams gear out of the box.
After going threw each of the jerseys and giving them their new gloves and black BDU pants they all gathered around the 3 cases of paintballs to load up their refill pods and hoppers.
"Alright guys, let's split it up. Puck, Sam, Mercedes, and Luke, blue shirts and red flag." They all nodded reaching into their bags and grabbed their blue practice T-shirts and headed off to the other side of the field. "Quinn, Dave, and Artie, you guys are with me. Purple shirts and blue flag. Let's do this!" They each grabbed their purple practice shirts from their bags and headed to the opposite side of the field.
Santana set herself up along the wall with her team. She pulled the plug out of the barrel and put the string around her neck. She pulled her mask down onto her face and looked at Quinn.
"You ready to show them how the girls like to play?" Quinn asked. You couldn't see the shit eating grin on her face through the mask but Santana knew Quinn was sporting one at the moment.
"You know it!" Santana replied holding out her hand. Quinn returned the handshake that only the two girls shared together.
Puck came over the intercom telling Santana that they were set. Santana pushed the button to reply. "Same. You guys know the drill. On three… it's war! One… two… THREE!"
With that, both teams advanced to cover while everyone rained fire in each direction.