Lucy Fabray was having a bad day. But every day was bad for her. It was the first day of sophomore year, and it sucked so far for her. She had to take the bus to school because she couldn't drive yet, she was scared to. Nobody wanted to sit with her on the bus, and everybody acted like she was a disease. All of those stupid kids whispering about her, and she just pretended like she didn't notice. But it didn't hurt any less.
If you say something they're going to know you care. Don't let them get a reaction out of you.
She repeated that to herself for her whole life. Since she was a child she was reminded of how imperfect she was. It was either her parents, her sister, her classmates, or the ones she thought were her friends. Her parents always thought she was useless, she was nothing like her sister Frannie, and they never missed an opportunity to remind her. She was nothing like them, if she told people she was adopted, they would believe her. All her family had blue eyes, and she had hazel ones, her father always said they were so common. She also had auburn hair instead of a perfect Fabray blonde one. Lucy wasn't thin like the rest of her family, and had an awful nose. She wore baggy clothes to hide her body figure. Her skin was full of pimples. And to top it off, she had glasses and braces.
She and her sister were never close. Frannie was perfect in her parent's eyes. She was valedictorian and captain of the cheerleaders. She had her perfect boyfriend, who the Fabrays approved of, and who she married later. They had a big age gap, so they were never close. They had never 'connected'. Her parents were always proud of Frannie, to them, she couldn't do anything wrong.
So now as a result of all that, she is insecure. And everyone could see that. In the way she walked, talked and did everything. Especially when she walked. Her head was always cast down, and her shoulders tense, like she was scared of something. And she was, she was actually scared of almost everything. But what scared her the most was people. People are so unpredictable and mean, she was scared of them.
Right now she was in the bathroom, cleaning her face after they gave her a slushie facial like every morning. She may get them every morning, but they still hurt. Her eyes stinged, and her clothes were ruined. She probably had hundreds of clothes ruined because of slushies. But her parents never asked, they didn't even want to talk to her, so they just gave her money, it was all they knew how to do. The sound of the door opening broke her out of her thoughts.
"I can leave," Lucy said quickly when she saw the girl staring at her. She didn't know this girl.
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. Do you need help with that?" She asked with what seemed to be a New York accent. She's really pretty, Lucy thought.
"You don't have to," Lucy said quickly.
"Why are you covered in that?" The girl asked, ignoring what she said and moving closer. She grabbed paper towels and took Lucy's glasses off. She wet the paper and got the slushie out of Lucy's face.
"You don't need to do this," Lucy said, looking down.
"Why wouldn't I?" she responded, gently grabbing her chin and making her look up.
"Because if they see you with me…" Lucy trailed off.
"What will happen if they see me with you? And who?" The girl asked, confused.
"Are you new or something?" Lucy asked, surprised she didn't know she was the biggest loser at the school.
"I am actually, just moved here." The girl finished getting the slushie out of Lucy's face. "Your glasses," she handed them to her. "I'm Santana, by the way."
"I'm Lucy," she said in a small voice.
"Nice to meet you. Why are you covered in that?"
"You'll discover it within the first week of school," Lucy said, walking away. "Thank you for your help, I don't want to cause you any trouble."
"Why would you cause me trouble?" Santana asked, as Lucy was opening the door.
"As I said, you'll find out within this week," and with that, she stepped out of the bathroom.
Just like Lucy said, Santana figured it out that week. Actually that same day. But what Lucy didn't know is that Santana didn't find it funny, she actually didn't like it one bit. She didn't like the school one bit, especially the jocks and cheerleaders. They were always mean and judgy, especially to Lucy, and she liked Lucy. She particularly didn't like Rachel, she was the meanest, and also her stepsister, who bullied Lucy to no end. But she wasn't a jock or a cheerleader. Apparently the highest in the social ladder were the jocks, cheerleaders and for some reason, the glee club, which made no sense to Santana.
Right now Santana was at soccer tryouts, it was one of her passions. She didn't like the girls in the team very much. And the cheerleaders were in the field next to them, they weren't nice to newcomers. During shootings, one of the girls missed on purpose and hit a girl that was sitting at the bleachers, the ball landing a few steps below her. The girl's glasses fell off her face, and she fumbled to get them back on.
"Why would you do that?" Santana asked the girl angrily.
"It was an accident, I'm not very good with my feet," the girl responded, and the rest of the squad giggled.
"If you're not good with your feet I don't know what you're doing in a soccer team," Santana responded, annoyed.
"Just go get the ball newbie," who appeared to be the captain of the team responded.
Santana huffed, but did what she was told anyways. She wanted to be in the team, so she would have to listen. She knew there were other balls they could use, but the other team members seemed to be getting a kick out of annoying her. As she approached the bleachers, she realised that the ball had hit that shy girl she had met in the bathroom. She quickly picked up the ball and approached the girl.
"Lucy, right?" Santana asked the girl. She was apparently doing her homework.
"Yeah," Lucy answered, surprised that she remembered her name.
"Are you okay? Saw the ball hit you on the head," Santana said sitting down beside her.
"Yeah I'm fine," the girl responded quietly while accommodating her glasses. "Shouldn't you go back to the field?"
"Oh no, the coach isn't even here yet. And I don't really like my teammates, they're kinda mean. By the way I'm sorry she hit you with the ball, I know it was on purpose." Santana said, looking towards the field.
"You shouldn't apologise for something that you didn't do. Besides, I'm used to it," Lucy said, with tears in her eyes.
"It doesn't make it right," Santana said, looking at her. "It actually makes it worse. Why would they do that?" she wasn't actually looking for an answer, and Lucy knew that.
"Whe-," Lucy was suddenly interrupted by a whistle coming from the soccer field.
"Shit," Santana muttered. "I should get back, I still wanna be part of the team. I'll see you later," she said while stepping down the bleachers.
Lucy sighed and looked down at her homework. She knew that once Santana was on the team she wouldn't be so nice. She didn't want to get her hopes up.
Half an hour later, Lucy found herself walking home as she had missed the bus. She was looking down as she walked. There was a sound coming from behind her, she thought it sounded like wheels. She looked back and it was Santana on her skateboard. She had earphones on, and was moving her head to the music. She was no longer in the school's soccer uniform, and was wearing the clothes she had been wearing in the morning. As she approached Lucy, Santana started to slow down, and came to a stop right next to her, putting her foot on the back of the board to stop it.
"Hey," Santana said, taking her earphones off.
"Hey," Lucy responded shyly.
"Can I walk with you?"
"Yeah, of course," Lucy responded eagerly.
"Thanks," Santana said, picking the skateboard up. "Where do ya live?"
"Oh, um. In Lima Heights," Lucy muttered in response.
"I live there too!" Santana said enthusiastically. Lucy flinched at the sudden tone. "Sorry, it's just that I haven't made any friends in this town yet. And you seem really nice," she says embarrassed.
"Oh, I- um. T-tha-anks." Lucy responded, now nervous.
"Why did you stay at school so late, are you in any clubs?" Santana asked, trying to make conversation.
"Not really, I j-just didn't feel like going home" Lucy responded, hating the way she was stuttering.
"Oh, I feel ya. I just moved in with my dad and his wife and her daughter. Don't usually feel like going home."
"Oh." They stayed in an uncomfortable silence, and Lucy tried to take the step and continue the conversation. "Where are you from?"
"Well, I'm from New York. Thought you could tell by the accent." Santana said playfully, making her accent really thick, making Lucy blush. "I lived there with my mom up until a few weeks ago."
"Why did you move?" Lucy asked curiously, but Santana stayed silent. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to pry. It's just that, it's weird to see someone move from a big city like New York to a small town like Lima"
"I know right! My dad wanted me to move." Santana said, looking down.
"Do you miss it?" Lucy asked.
"Of course. I miss some things, especially my mom. Though I do really like how quiet it is here, and I can just ride my skateboard to school without many worries."
"That's nice. I sometimes think it's too quiet."
"And what is there to do here? Anything special?"
"There's nothing out of the ordinary, I suppose. We have a small mall. There's the Lima Bean, they have decent enough coffee there. And the most elegant restaurant is Breadsticks. It's a little Italian place."
"That sounds nice. What do you usually do when you're free?"
"I don't know, I guess I read. I stay in and watch TV." Lucy said, realising how boring she must sound. "I'm sorry, that sounds really boring."
"That's fine, if you think it's fun, then I think it's cool. I don't usually do much either. I had a really nice computer back home, paid for it myself with my salary. I just stayed in, and played my games with my friends. And I played soccer of course."
"Oh, you had a job?"
"Yeah, I worked at my uncle's mechanic shop."
"There's Burt's shop here, if you want to apply for a job. He's always taking teens in."
"That's cool, I guess I'll think about that. I think I want to focus on soccer though."
"What position do you play in?" Lucy asked, even though she knew nothing about soccer.
They kept talking until they neared their houses. Lucy came to a stop, as they were in front of her house.
"This is me," she said
"Oh, mine's like four houses down. I guess I'll see ya later." Santana said, disappointed the conversation was over.
"Sure." Lucy said, walking towards her house.
"Hey!" Santana shouted and Lucy turned around. "Can I have your number?"
"S-sure!" Lucy shouted back.
Santana ran to her and offered her phone, for Lucy to put her number in it. "Here," she muttered.
"Put yours too," Lucy said, handing Santana her phone.
They exchanged phone numbers and gave each other their phones back. "Well I guess I'll see ya tomorrow at school," Santana said, walking backwards.
"See ya!" Lucy shouted back awkwardly while waving. She was cursing herself for being so cringey, when she saw Santana wave back with a big smile.
Santana skated to her house, she noticed that her father's car was in the driveway. She clenched her jaw, preparing to see him, and entered the house.
"Santana! How was your first day?" Her step-mother, Shelby, asked her enthusiastically.
Santana chose to pretend she was still listening to music, and went directly up to her room. Her room was practically empty. She had decided to leave most of her stuff back in New York, thinking that she would move back soon, and it didn't make sense to bring everything to Lima just to take it back to NY again. The walls in the room were painted a bright pink, Shelby had said it used to be Rachel's room when she was younger. She hated pink, so she was going to buy some black paint for the walls. She only had two boxes, which she had yet to unpack.
She flopped onto the bed, and suddenly realised that she really had nothing to do in this town, she had no friends and no places to go. That thought brought tears to her eyes, and deciding to stop them from falling, stood up and made her way to the bathroom. Right before entering the shower, she decided to send a text to the only person she liked in Lima.
To Lucy: Is an hour too soon to text?
She sent the text and entered the shower. The shower took much longer than she thought, she took her time to relax. When she was walking out of the shower, she heard Shelby call her to dinner.
Coming down the stairs she could hear happy chatter coming from the dining room. When the people in the room noticed her presence, they were suddenly quiet, Santana clenched her jaw again.
"Sit down honey, I made pie for dinner." Shelby said. Santana sat down next to Rachel. "How was your first day?" she asked.
"It was okay, I guess." Santana responded curtly.
"Did you try out for the soccer team?" Shelby tried making conversation once again. Santana decided not to respond.
"She did," Rachel replied for her.
"That's good Santana," Her father said. Santana felt like it was the most uncomfortable dinner of her life.
"Did you make any friends?" Shelby tried again. Her father gestured for her to stop talking, it was then that Santana decided to talk.
"I did, actually."
"Really? What's their name?" Shelby asked.
"Her name's Lucy, she's pretty cool," Santana replied.
"Pretty cool?!" Rachel asked, outraged. "That loser cannot be your friend, they'll make fun of you. And then, they'll bother me about it." Rachel continued.
"She's not a loser, so watch your mouth." Santana answered, angry.
"Control yourself Santana, do not speak to your sister that way," her father looked at her for the first time in the day.
"She's not my sister," Santana hissed. "Just listen to her, she's a little shit. You clearly raised her that way."
"That's it! Go to your room, I don't want to hear another word from you!" her father screamed at her.
"Gladly," Santana said as she stood up. She quickly went up the stairs, and when she was about to slam her door, she decided against it. Her father wouldn't take her seriously if she was acting like a child throwing a tantrum. She layed on her bed and picked up her phone. She had a text from Lucy.
From Lucy: I don't think so
Santana smiled at the text and typed her answer.
To Lucy: My father's being a bitch. I hope your dinner was better than mine.
From Lucy: I don't know about your dinner, but mine sucked.
To Lucy: Wanna talk about it?
From Lucy: Not really, how 'bout u?
To Lucy: Nah. I think imma sleep now. See ya at the bus stop for school?
From Lucy: Sure. Goodnight.
To Lucy: Night.
New story, hope you like it. Just a heads up, updates won't be often 'cause senior year's a bitch, but I'll do my best. I actually have been working on this for about a year, so I really hope you like it.
Btw I decided to delete my instagram account and open up a twitter account instead. It is much more my vibe. I will definitely be active there. It's quinntanalover.