The next two weeks are no different for Lucy and Brittany. They arrive at the park on Saturday mornings, their moms go for coffee and there is no sign of the mean, older boy. Unfortunately, there is no sign of Santana either.
Until three weeks later, when Brittany is dragging Lucy towards the sandpit, she spots a familiar head of beautiful brunette hair playing with an older lady building sandcastles.
"Is that Santana?!?" Brittany all but screeches, and all Lucy can seem to do is nod.
Brittany grabs her bestfriends hand and drags her towards the sandbox. Before Lucy knows it, they're standing over the two playing and the Latina looks up and grins brightly.
"Wow, she has the best smile." Is Lucy's first thought.
"Britt, Lucy, hey! I didn't think I'd see you again. I've been coming to the park on Saturdays but I've never seen you."
Lucy is still completely mute and so Britt takes on the conversation. "We always come about this time as our moms are usually busy in the afternoons. We've been looking out for you too."
"I've been coming at different times to see if I could see you again. Now I know." And she flashes that brilliant smile again.
Lucy's heart melts at the sight but is still struggling to comprehend any words to say. She looks to her left and notices that the lady playing with Santana has now vacated and is nowhere to be seen. She is brought out of her thoughts by that heavenly voice addressing her.
"Hey Luce, how's your leg? Are you feeling any better?"
That familiar pink tinge, that only appears around the young Latina, is spreading across her cheeks again as she finally finds her voice.
"It's okay now, I got to have one of them cool plasters like you said."
The brunette smiles and decides not to make the shorter blonde any more embarrassed, even though she finds it adorable.
"Do you two want to build sandcastles with me?"
And that's how it started.
The Saturday morning ritual.
Brittany and Lucy would meet at the park, same as every Saturday morning and then they would make their way to the sand box to meet Santana so that they could play together.
This continued for weeks and the girls got to know each other. Brittany loved playing with the Latina, she was bold, brave and would play whatever the blonde wanted.
Lucy still blushed heavily around her and Santana did everything she could to try and make her feel comfortable. She caught on quite early that the hazel eyed blonde was slow in trusting and very aware around anyone that was new, she just hoped that she could get her to relax around her.
A couple of weeks later, Judy Fabray entered Lucy's bedroom whilst she was getting ready for the usual Saturday morning routine.
"Lucy, baby, Whitney just called and they can't make it to the park today. They're going to Brittany's big sisters cheerleading competition. She said that Evelyn's car broke down this morning, so they need to drive her."
Lucy felt overwhelming disappointment as she was excited about seeing Santana today.
"But Mommy, Santana will be waiting for us and she won't know that we aren't coming. Do you think we could go for a little while?" She pulled out her best puppy dog eyes that always work on her mother and saw it instantly working and her mother crumbling.
"Well I suppose it'll be okay for a little while. It will do us good to get some fresh air. Finish getting dressed and we'll get going. Make sure you brush your teeth."
She runs towards her mother and hugs her legs, "Of course mommy, thank you!"
They arrive at the park shortly after and Judy goes to get her coffee after making sure that Lucy has found Santana.
The brunette is shocked when she sees one blonde instead of two approaching her as usual.
"Hey Luce, where's Britt?"
"She couldn't make it today, her mom had to take her big sister to her cheerleading competition."
A smile breaks out onto Santana's face as she says, "Well that's okay, we can get to know each other better." She offers her hand out to the blonde, who takes it and they wonder off to the jungle gym together to hide in their secret spot, that the three of them discovered.
They make themselves comfortable and surprisingly it's Lucy that speaks first to ask something that's been on her mind for a while.
"Santana, erm, who's that lady that's always with you. She, well, she doesn't look like you."
Santana smiles at the nervousness of her newly found friend and gently places a hand on her knee. She can't help but notice that the blonde flinches and so slowly retracts it as not to draw attention to her find. She also can't help but spot the new bruises that have formed across her legs.
"It's okay Lucy, you don't need to be nervous, you can ask me anything. The lady with me, that's Miss Tina. She's my nanny." She states with a reassuring smile.
Santana notices that Lucy physically relaxes as a conversation starts to flow. This is one of the first times she's had a full conversation with the blonde.
"Wow so you have a nanny. Where are your mommy and daddy, are they at home?"
"My mommy is at work, she works in the hospital and my daddy, he's in the army so he's in Afghanistan at the moment."
Lucy notices that Santana's smile falters a little but it's soon back when she responds with, "What about your parents, what are their jobs?"
"Well my Daddy works with houses, he sells them to people and my Mommy doesn't have a job. She just looks after me and my big sister, Frannie."
Santana smiles as they get to know each other more until Judy comes to find Lucy to go home.