8 years later..
Lucy and Brittany are starting Sophmore year. Over the summer before they entered the hell that is high school, Little Lucy transformed.
She convinced her dad, Russell Fabray, to let her get a nose job, she lost the braces and worked herself into the ground to lose the extra weight she'd always carried.
She may have been the laughing stock of middle school, but she certainly wouldn't be in high school.
Lucy was no more..
She decided that she would no longer use her first name but would now be referred to as her middle name only, Quinn.
It's not like anybody outside of Brittany would know, new school, new year, new her. She was going to rule the school.
And that she did.
The boys wanted to date her and the girls wanted to be her. Quinn and Brittany were accepted into the Cheerios, McKinley's winning cheerleading team, and they were going to be unstoppable.
They burst through the doors of McKinley, Quinn with her best HBIC glare, (she had to practice if she was going to be head cheerleader when the time came) and Brittany smiling alongside her.
Brittany hadn't changed much over the years, she was still bubbly and charismatic, still said things that were out of the ordinary and people still thought she was stupid. But Quinn knew better.
She knew that Brittany had a side to her that was just as conniving as the rest of the bitches at this school. She was just extremely discreet and her persona would throw people off.
They strode straight towards their lockers, where Quinn found her boyfriend, Finn Hudson, and his best friend, Noah 'Puck' Puckerman waiting for them.
"Hey babe," he greeted her, with a kiss on the cheek. "We're all in home room first so let's get going."
Quinn rolled her eyes whilst opening her locker and looked up to give her a fake, tight lipped smile. She didn't really like Finn, he was condescending and as he was a shoo-in for Quarterback this season, he believed anyone and everyone should bow down to him.
But she had to keep up appearances if she was going to be head bitch. What better way to do that than to date the quarterback, right?
At this point the bell rang and they all headed towards home room.
Quinn sits down with Brittany one side and Finn the other and is staring into space. What brings her back is the words coming from Puck's mouth in Finn's direction.
"Dude, did you see the new chick? She is so fine, I bet you within a week she'll be under the Puckasaurus. I'll invite her to my party this weekend and make a move. I heard she's from Dallas and I also heard that girls from there are dirty." He accompanies his vulgar words with a wink and Finn can only laugh.
Talking about sex always makes Finn uncomfortable because even though he's been dating Quinn for a little over a year now, she won't let him get anywhere near her. She will barely kiss him. The blonde sees his uneasiness but can only grin as Puck is still rambling about ways to get the new girl into his bed.
Quinn's mind wanders off again, anytime she hears anything in relation to Dallas she thinks about her Latina friend that left her. She wonders what she looks like now, what she's doing and if she ever thinks about her, too.
The teacher enters and just like that, Quinn is brought back from her thoughts with intent to focus on whatever she needs to be. Grades are important if you're going to get out of this shithole called Lima.
Quinn and Brittany are sitting and eating lunch with the Cheerios when Finn and Puck approach them and plonk theirselves into the empty seats beside them. As the boys are on the football team, the Cheerios are always following them with their eyes and making hints, which they think are subtle, to get any of the players to date them. Realistically, Quinn should be jealous, but she just isn't.
It's Puck that speaks up first, "So I approached the new girl, I asked her out and she called me 'rodent head' and said I wasn't her type! I don't know what she means, I'm everyone's type!"
Quinn can only laugh because she always thought Puck's mohawk, which he thought looked cool, looked like a dead squirrel.
"I also found out that apparently because we don't have enough players for the team this year that she's joining the team! When I spoke to coach Beiste about it, she only said "She's one hell of a player, not like you pansies! We might actually win something this year" Can you believe that?"
"Well you boys were awful last year, even I struggled to find something to cheer for." Brittany says.
Finn gives her his best glare which gains Quinn's attention, "Don't look at her like that, you know she's right."
Puck and Finn both huff and decide to leave the table, obviously sneaped by Quinn's bluntness.
The rest of the week goes by with the football team complaining about the new football player 'Lopez' and her brother, who are showing them up. Coach believes that with the two of them, they may have a shot at a championship this year.
Eventually, it's Saturday and time for Puck's annual 'Welcome back to school' party.
Quinn is anxiously sitting on the end of her bed while she waits for Brittany to finish getting ready.
"You know, you always play with that bracelet when you're nervous." Brittany's voice sounds.
Quinn looks up into blue eyes and can see the confusion in them. Brittany is right, when she's nervous, she subconsciously plays with the bracelet from her Tana. It makes her feel safe.
Not once has she removed the bracelet since it was put on her wrist eight years ago, that along with the necklace gifted to her, they are a part of her body now.
Brittany removed her bracelet a few years ago when she realised that Santana probably wasn't returning and that she'd never see her again. However, Quinn didn't have the heart to take it off, she can't break that promise.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I've never noticed. But I'm not nervous, what do I have to be nervous of? It must just be habit." She replies and in return receives a smile from her best friend.
"Come on then, let's get going. I need to dance." And with that the girls made their way to the Puckerman household.
Santana can't believe that she's finally back in Lima. Strangely she feels as though this is the only place, throughout her many moves, that's felt like home. But maybe that was because of a certain blonde and her best friend.
Over the past eight years, a lot has happened in her life. Her Dad returned permanently from war a very different man. He saw his two best friends blown up when the convoy hit a land mine and died, leaving their son, who was 9 years old at the time, an orphan.
Her father, Emilio, and her mother, Maribel, decided to adopt young Blaine, as Emilio was his godfather anyway.
Santana was over the moon with this as her mother looked after Blaine anyway when their parents were at war and she loved him like a brother. Now he was.
When Emilio retired from the war and was home, they saw a change in him and not a good one. He was drunk and would shout and scream. Santana knew it wasn't really aimed at them and was a consequence of the war, however, that didn't make it less scary.
A couple of years later and eventually, her parents got divorced and she and Blaine left with her mother.
Maribel tried to provide for the children but it was hard as a single mother of two.
When the kids turned 15, she decided that they would move back to Lima and start fresh. She used to love her job at the hospital there and Santana and Blaine would get a good education. They both had their hearts set on joining the army, following their parents footsteps, and McKinley High School had a great ROTC programme they could do alongside their studies.
Maribel managed to get her job back at Lima General and before they knew it, they were all settled back in to the town Santana always felt like, was her home.
That's how she now found herself outside of this relatively large house, entering a party of a bunch of people she doesn't know, with Blaine at her side.
"Are you ready for this?" He says gently as he looks into Santana's eyes. He can sense the slight apprehension in her posture.
Blaine knows that over the years, Santana missed her little blonde friends. When she first moved to Dallas, the only thing she spoke about was the hazel-eyed beauty, named Lucy.
When their Mami first broke the news that they would be moving back to Lima, he saw the excitement in Santana's eyes, until he realised that she was scared to potentially see them again. That maybe they didn't remember her anymore.
"Yeah, come on, let's go."
They enter through the front door and there's bodies everywhere. Pressed up against the walls, flooding the staircase, the kitchen, living room, back yard, you name it, there's at least 20 people in every room. Most of the school must be here.
They walk into the living room and can see that all the furniture has been pushed to the side so that a makeshift dance floor is made and there are people grinding on each other to the music that is pulsating the house.
Blaine decides to pull Santana through to the kitchen where he can get a drink, because they aren't going to survive this night without one. He pours two vodka cokes into plastic red cups and hands one to his sister. They cheers and take their first sips.
"I didn't realise parties were such a big thing around here." Santana says to Blaine. Where they lived in Dallas, they were still homeschooled by Miss Tina and never really saw any other kids, but when they did, they couldn't imagine them every behaving like this.
"Well I suppose it's the first week back and people already need to let loose." He replies with a small shrug of his shoulders.
Just then Puck enters through the kitchen door and makes a beeline straight towards them.
"Lopez's! How are you? Welcome to Casa De La Puck."
A few years after Maribel and Emilio adopted Blaine, he asked if he could legally change his name to Lopez, he wanted to be a permanent part of the family. They both were proud to give him the name, along with Santana who was over the moon with his request.
Blaine responds to Puck with a smile, "We're good man, thanks for inviting us."
"Anything for our new team mates. Hopefully we can win something this year." He then looks over and focuses his attention on Santana, "and how about you sweet thing?" He says with his trademark wink.
She throws on her sarcastic smile, "Sorry big boy, still not my type." She can see she's hurt his pride but he still laughs and makes a comment about finding a 'willing' cheerleader as he leaves the room.
This is going to be a long night.
Quinn is standing in the corner of the living room talking to a fellow Cheerio, when Finn approaches her. "Hey babe, can I talk to you outside for a sec?" Usually when Finn's been drinking she tries to keep her distance, he can get quite handsy and forceful when she doesn't comply. She can tell that, tonight, he's drank more than usual.
She forces her way through the kitchen, with Finn trailing, and it seems that nearly everyone is gathered in there to watch what seems to be Puck and some of the other footballers in an intense beer pong game on the dining table.
As soon as she leaves through the back door, the brisk air hits her and she begins to shiver slightly. Quinn stands on the porch and waits for Finn to appear, it doesn't take long before he's standing in front of her.
"Are you avoiding me or something?"
"What? No. Why would I be avoiding you?"
Finn takes this a sign to step closer and put his giant hand on her waist.
"I just haven't seen you all night." He leans in for a kiss but she turns her head and he catches her cheek. Something Finn obviously isn't impressed with.
"Why are you always doing that? You don't kiss me anymore and when you do it's like you're not even there!" He begins to raise his voice and this is when Quinn realises he's going to lose his temper.
He steps closer and lowers his voice back down. "Don't you think it's time you give me something more? I mean we've been together a year Quinn. Puck gets girls to sleep with him in less than a day!" His frustration begins to grow again and he harshly grabs her arm.
"Finn, let go of me! You're hurting me, let go."
He only pulls her closer to him, clutching her arm harder. She can smell the mix of beer and tequila on his breath. "Come on, I know you must be dying for it now, begging like that."
Quinn realises the only way out of this now is for her to shout, "FINN, YOU'RE HURTING ME LET GO!" Tears begin to gather in her eyes as she realises no one can hear her over the noise in the kitchen.
As she feels her back hit the wall and Finn's lips on her neck, she hears the door open and suddenly Finn is removed and lying on his back infront of her.
"What are you doing asshole? She told you no and that you were hurting her?"
Quinn would recognise that voice anywhere, but surely it's not..
"Wow Lopez, what's your issue? That's my girlfriend, I wasn't doing anything."
"You weren't doing anything?!" She screams back, "She told you no, she said you were hurting her! Even I could hear that through all that fucking noise in there so don't tell me you weren't doing anything?!" Rage is coursing through her by now and the fear she can see through Finn's eyes means she's getting through to him.
By this point, people have began to file out into the garden to find out what all the commotion is about.
Blaine approaches Santana cautiously and she shrugs off his comforting hand. "Get out of my face before I put my fist through your dopey one, you fucking idiot."
Instead of fighting back, Finn scrambles to his feet and pushes his way inside through the crowd, humiliation clearly showing on his face. Santana turns to the remaining bystanders "Show's over, fuck off back inside."
With that, people begin to disperse to remain doing whatever was happening before. Santana gives Blaine a look to say she's okay and he too, follows the crowd back inside.
It's at this point she finally turns around to acknowledge the blonde. The slightly taller girl has her back to Santana and is trying to discreetly wipe her eyes. Santana approaches her and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder, the girl flinches and pulls away.
"It's okay, everyone's gone. I won't hurt you. Are you alright?" She whispers.
The girl slowly turns around and Santana is stunned..
"Lucy?"