Santana had woken up early to prepare for school, for some reason she wanted to look decent for her new friend. She found that weird, considering she had never cared about what other people thought of her, but Lucy was different. She had showered, done her hair, chosen an outfit just in time to leave for school. She had calculated the time perfectly so she didn't have to watch her dad play house with his wife.

Santana quickly went downstairs while putting on her vintage messenger bag. She made a quick stop by the kitchen to grab an apple for breakfast and saw Shelby and Rachel having breakfast together.

"Santana, good morning dear. I made breakfast." Shelby chipperly greeted.

"Morning. I'm good, thanks." Santana said and opened the fridge. She grabbed a water bottle and put it in her bag.

"Okay, we're leaving in five so-" Shelby started talking, but Santana cut her off.

"Actually, I'm taking the bus, but thanks for the offer." The brunette said while looking through the fruit bowl for an apple. She grabbed the best looking one and took a bite out of it while heading out.

She grabbed her skateboard on her way out and skated the little distance she had to the bus stop. Once there she saw that her new friend was waiting for her.

"Hey! Good morning!" Santana greeted happily. She came to a stop in front of Lucy who smiled when she saw her.

"Morning!" Lucy greeted back, just as happy.

"Do you always take the bus?" Santana asked her to make small talk.

"Yeah, I don't know how to drive yet, and my parents can't take me." Lucy answered shyly. That was a lie. Her mother had all the time in the world, she just didn't want to take her.

"I don't know how to drive either, not very useful in the city." Santana commented. "My step-mom, Shelby, takes my step-sister to school in her car since she works there, but the less time I spend with them the better."

"Your step-mom's a teacher? Who is she?" Lucy asked.

"I think she goes by her maiden name at school, I'm not sure. She's Rachel Berry's mom." Santana said the last part with caution to see Lucy's reaction. She figured it would come up sooner or later, and it was better it came from her that Lucy's biggest bully is her step-sister.

"Oh. M-Mrs. Corcoran. I think she's a music teacher or so-something." Lucy stuttered. She hadn't expected that. Did the universe hate her? How is it possible that the one person that will actually talk to her is family with the girl she hates the most.

"Uh, makes sense Rachel likes show tunes and stuff so much then." Santana says, trying to change the subject. "I swear to god she never shuts up, it's like everything that comes out of her mouth is Barbara this or Barbara that. She's so annoying." Santana rambled. She was nervous to see if Lucy had decided they couldn't be friends because of her family.

"That must be annoying." Is all Lucy says.

Santana decides not to talk anymore after that, letting Lucy come to a decision. They stayed in an uncomfortable silence for a couple of minutes until the bus arrived and they got in quickly. Santana scans the bus for empty seats when she sees some girl wave her over in the back. Four girls from the soccer team were sitting in the back. She had a decision to make at that moment, she could either sit with her potential team, or sit with her potential friend. The decision was easy for Santana, those girls hadn't treated her or Lucy nicely the day before. So Santana sat at a couple of empty seats and gestured for Lucy to sit next to her. She could hear the girls in the back whispering about them, but she didn't really care.

"Why did you do that?" Lucy asked her with a frown on her face.

"Do what?" Santana asked, confused.

"Ignore that girl, she's on the soccer team, I thought you wanted in."

"I do want to be on the soccer team, but I don't really like any of them, but I like you." Santana explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. She saw Lucy blush and she smiled internally. "Besides, I'm great at soccer. There's no way I'm not making the team." She said cockily, trying to not make it awkward.

"Cocky aren't you?" Lucy asked teasingly.

"When I make the team you're going to come to a game and see me play, we'll see if you consider it cocky or just the truth then." The brunette replied, smirking.

The ride to school had taken about twenty minutes, which they had filled with happy chatter. Once they arrived at school, Lucy was visibly nervous, Santana noticed it, but couldn't quite understand why. The shy girl didn't want her new friend to see her being bullied like every morning. She especially didn't want Santana to see someone throwing a slushie at her. She knew Santana wouldn't be nice to her forever, she would eventually get fed up about her being a loser.

As they were crossing the front doors Santana was talking to Lucy about something with a smile, but she quickly noticed Lucy wasn't listening to her at all. She frowned and looked over at her, concerned.

"Are you okay? You look a little pale." Santana asked her.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Lucy lied, she was not fine at all. Soon there would be someone from the cheerleading team with a slushie in their hands just for her. Or maybe today it would be someone from the football team.

Santana decided not to push her and continued their walk to their lockers. Santana noticed two girls wearing cheerleading uniforms, one of them holding a cup of some drink. As the latina hadn't been in Mckinley High for long, she didn't give it much thought, but Lucy knew exactly what that meant. She knew this was the moment she was going to be utterly humiliated in front of her new friend and lose her forever. Santana would be too embarrassed to be seen in public with her and would never talk to her again.

Santana stopped them in the middle of the hallway to look at Lucy. "Are you sure you're okay? Did you have breakfast, maybe your blood-" Santana was cut off when she saw movement out of the corner of her eyes. Her reflexes kicked in and she, without realising, knocked the cup of slushie back towards the cheerleaders. "Shit." The latina muttered, seeing both girls covered in the red drink.

"What is wrong with you?!" One of them screamed at her.

"What's wrong with me?! What's wrong with you? You were gonna throw that at her!" Santana screamed back.

"That's none of your business new girl." The other girl sneered. "Apologise," she added.

"What?" Santana asked, incredulous. "I'm not gonna apologise, you apologise."

"I'm the one covered in this shit. So, apologise."

"No, Lucy was covered in that shit yesterday, and I'm pretty sure it was you. So I'm not gonna apologise." Santana glared at her.

The girl just let out a frustrated groan and turned around and left with the other girl hot on her heels. Santana knew this wasn't the end of it. She had probably made enemies for life with that girl, and with the entire cheerleading squad.

"You didn't have to do that." Lucy muttered shyly. She had just been standing there, stunned.

"What do you mean? I wasn't just going to stand there and let them throw that shit at you." Santana explained.

"It's okay, they do it every morning. I have spare clothes and everything, you don't have to worry."

"And people are okay with that? Don't teachers know?"

"I think they do, but they don't really care. I don't think they pay them enough to care. Besides, they're all too scared of Sue to suspend her precious Cheerios."

"That doesn't make it okay. They can't just attack you every morning and get away with it." Santana angrily muttered.

"Don't worry too much about it, there's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do." Lucy said, trying to assure Santana.

"This doesn't make me feel any better."

"Let's just go to class." Lucy said.

"Right. Do we share any classes?" Santana asked her, trying to change the subject.

"I'm a sophomore, and I think you're a junior, so no, we don't."

"That sucks. You're my only friend here, and we don't share any classes." Santana sighed.

Classes weren't as bad as Santana had expected. Teachers were very unenthusiastic. And her classmates sucked for most classes, but she had sat next to a nice enough guy in Calculus. She was dreading getting out in the field with her possibly new team, but today the coach was telling them who made the team.

Once she got to the field, already in her uniform and cleats, she noticed everyone sitting on the bleachers, so she did the same. She noticed Lucy was also there, sitting at the top of the bleachers reading a book. Santana smiled at her, even if her friend couldn't see her. The coach stood in front of them and gave them a supposedly inspirational speech about how important teamwork is and how if someone didn't make it, they could try out next year. Then she started calling names from a list. Santana started to get anxious because the coach didn't call her name.

"And last but not least, Santana Lopez." The coach called. Santanana let out a breath of relief. "This will be the team for the next season, for those who didn't make the team, thank you for trying out. Now, the others, get your asses up!" The coach screamed at them.

Santana got up and started running for her warm ups. It was a good enough practice. Her team seemed to be giving her the cold shoulder because of what happened in the bus. Probably also because of the slushie incident with Lucy too.

Once practice was done, she headed toward Lucy. The other girl looked up from her book and smiled at Santana as the brunette sat down.

"Hey, how was practice?" Lucy asked.

"It was okay."

"You made the team, that's great!" Lucy said, excited for her new friend.

"Yeah, told ya I was great."

"Cocky."

"Whatever. I gotta shower, you wanna wait for me and we'll walk together?" Santana asked.

"Sure."

With that Santana ran towards the showers so she didn't keep Lucy waiting. When she arrived at the locker room, most of the girls were gone. She knew she couldn't avoid her team forever, but for now she had no problem ignoring them. She quickly showered and changed. Once she stepped out, she saw Lucy was waiting for her.

"Hey, you ready?" Santana asked her.

"Yeah."

They walked home together while talking about everything and nothing. Lucy didn't know what things she could ask and how much she could tell Santana, since she had only met her yesterday, and she had never been in this situation before. Of having a new friend. But Santana made her feel so comfortable, like she never had around someone before.

Santana was once again sat at the dinner table with her 'new family'. Rachel was blabbering about something Santana didn't particularly care about, and her dad and Shelby didn't seem to either.

"So, Santana, how was school today? Did you make the team?" Shelby asked, cutting Rachel off, which the short girl seemed to be offended about.

"Um, yeah." Santana answered, playing around with her food.

"That's great sweetie!" Shelby said, excitedly, which made Santana cringe.

"Thanks." The latina muttered.

"Well, anyway, as I was saying. I invited Finn to dinner this Friday like you asked me to daddy." Rachel interrupted. That made Santana cringe even harder, why did Rachel have to call him daddy of all things. "He said yes."

"I won't be here on Friday." Santana said before she could really think about it.

"Well, that's a pity-" Rachel started to talk, but she was cut off by father.

"You will be here Santana." He said, sternly.

"Why? I have plans." Santana complained. She didn't have plans, but she would rather spend the whole night alone in some McDonald's than at a 'family' dinner with Rachel's boyfriend.

"This is a family thing Santana, you will not miss it." He said, leaving no room for discussion.

"Fine, then can I at least invite my friend?"

Carlos was ready to say no, but his wife beat him to it. "Of course Santana, we would love to meet her!" Shelby said enthusiastically.

"Thank you." Santana said with a pleased smile. Then she realised that Lucy would probably hate having dinner with her family. Rachel and Finn were part of the group that bullied her. What had Santana done?

Hi everyone! It took more time than I thought, but it's here! I'm writing some stuff on the side too, so expect to see some things soon. I'm posting some mini fics on my insta which is quinntanalover. And btw, thank you to quinntanarivera for the shoutout! I really appreciate it. See you in the next chapter, love y'all!