When Monday arrived Santana was relieved. She had heard her father complain at her for making him go to a game she didn't even win for the whole weekend. Even though she hadn't invited him, and her team losing had nothing to do with her. The only good thing that came from it was that Carlos seemed less enamoured by Finn, seeing as the team that he led didn't even score one point. So it was safe to say that she was relieved that she would be spending time in school instead of at her house.
She met Lucy at the bus stop as she usually did, they chatted about their weekends as they waited. As usual, Santana sat next to Lucy, and not with her soccer teammates.
"You know, you should try to get along with them if you actually want to play." Lucy commented.
"Well, I'm not the one who's a piece of shit. They should make an effort too, and all they do is run their mouth when we all know they suck." Santana said bitterly.
"Well, I want to see you play. So maybe try?" Lucy asked. "You still have to show me how 'good' you are." Lucy said with air quotes, blushing.
"No need for the air quotes, Luce. I'm good, I'll show you. I promise I'll play this weekend and score just for you." Santana said smugly. She looked at Lucy, who blushed harder, and realised what she had said, and blushed too. But she didn't try to take it back. "So, when do I get to see which of your pictures makes the school paper?"
"I guess the club meets today to decide what makes it to the paper, and they'll choose my pics then. I don't know what sports event will make it onto the paper, they all had the same results." Lucy explained with a grimace.
"Shit, I can't believe the school is that bad at everything sports related. Are they good at anything?"
"Yeah actually, there's two glee club's 'cause they're so good. They perform sometimes in assemblies. Some of the academic teams are also good." Lucy explained.
"Huh, that must be the most boring things to write about. Do you take pictures for all of those too?"
"Not really. I take the team's pictures with whatever they win, but I don't go to the competitions. I once went to a glee club competition, though. It was here at the school, so I kinda had to."
"Shit, at this point I feel like you should be paid for this. It's like a full time job." Santana joked.
Lucy laughed, "it kinda is, but it's good for college apps and it actually counts as job experience in the photography field. Besides, I don't have a camera to work with, so it's kind of impossible."
"Huh, that's actually kind of cool. What kind of camera do you want?"
The girls kept talking about photography the whole way to the school. This was the first time Lucy felt like someone took an interest in her hobby. No one had ever asked so many questions about it, and actually cared about her answer.
After-school practice was awful for Santana. She was still trying her hardest, but it wasn't enough when none of her teammates passed her the ball. The coach had decided to change the starting lineup after the defeat on Saturday. Their next game was Friday night, again at the same time as the football match. To Santana it felt like they were asking for no one to be in the stands, why put a match at the same time as the main event?
At the end of practice Santana tried talking to her coach about being put in the lineup, but she didn't get the answer she expected.
"Look Lopez, I can see you're good, and you've got passion, but your teammates don't pass you the ball, there's nothing I can do about that. That's something you've got to solve. I can't put in a striker that won't receive a ball, I'm sorry." Was all the coach said before leaving.
Santana was left there standing and fuming. She could see all her teammates leaving towards the shower, but she decided to run a couple laps to cool down.
When she was on her second lap she heard someone calling her name. "San!" It was Lucy, somehow, hearing her friend's voice managed to calm Santana down. She blushed a bit at the nickname, but quickly shook her head so it wouldn't be noticeable. Santana ran down to meet with Lucy. "Hey, why are you running after practice? You should be resting." Lucy asked, worried.
Santana stood there for a second, panting after the amount of exercise she had done. Lucy was right, she needed to rest. "I just needed to cool down. I had a disappointing conversation with my coach." Santana explained.
"What happened?" Lucy asked, frowning.
"Coach refused to put me in the starting lineup 'cause the girls won't pass me the fucking ball. They're icing me out, it's ridiculous, I didn't do shit to them." Santana said angrily, still out of breath.
"Well, in their minds, you kinda did." Lucy explained. Santana just stared at her, confused. "San, you hang out with me."
"So what? That's not enough reason for them to not like me. It's not like you're a piece of shit and being your friend means I'm a piece of shit too. They're acting like fucking kids, and I'm sure as hell not going to stop hanging out with you because they're immature." Santana ranted.
Lucy blushed furiously and stared at the ground. "I-I know. But you don't make an effort with them either." She took a calming breath, hoping her face was back to normal, and looked up again. "It's a team sport, and getting along with the team is important. I know it's difficult, you don't know any of them, but they've known each other for the whole of high school, and probably middle school. You need to stop avoiding them, you have to try and hang around them, even if you hate them. You can't just leave after the game, and you can't wait until everyone leaves to go into the locker room."
Santana just blinked at her, she had made the smartest friend in the world. "Jesus, you're smart. You ever thought about being a motivational coach, or a sport's manager or something?"
Lucy let out a small laugh, "I'm being serious Santana."
"I know, it's just weird trying so hard for these people to like me when I don't want anything to do with them." Santana sighed.
"Okay, I get it. But, if you want to play you have to make an effort." Santana just groaned in response. "Just try."
"Fine." Santana groaned again, this time throwing her head back.
"You are such a child." Lucy laughed. Santana stuck her tongue out at her. "That just proves my point."
"Whatever. On another note, I have to paint my room this weekend, I swear the pink is giving me a headache. So, you in?"
"Sure, you did promise me food."
"I'll get you whatever you want. And hey, maybe you can stay over." Santana suggested.
"O-okay."
That same day, Santana sat having dinner with her father's family. It was silent as usual, and uncomfortable. And just like always, Shelby wanted to defuse the tension by asking the teenagers questions.
"Rachel, honey, how was school today?"
"It was okay, I guess. Finn wasn't at school today, he had a cold or something." Rachel answered. Santana frowned at that, she swore she had never heard Rachel talk about something that wasn't Finn or musicals.
"And you, Santana?" Shelby asked.
"It was okay, I guess. I still didn't make the starting team, but I'm working on it. Lucy gave me some good advice." Santana explained. She missed Rachel rolling her eyes at her.
"That's too bad, I'm sure the coach will let you play next time." Shelby said, not really understanding how soccer worked. There was a tense silence after that, so Shelby cleared her throat and asked another question. "How's Lucy doing?"
"She's great, she showed me the pictures she took of the games, they're awesome. She makes everything look so cool." Santana gushed, then coughed when she realised. "Um, I actually wanted to ask you if she could spend the night on friday? She's helping me paint my room."
"That's great! Is she staying for dinner too?" Shelby enthused. She was glad her step-daughter, who seemed gloomy, had a friend she liked so much. A little too much in Shelby's opinion. But she was happy nonetheless.
"I guess, I'll ask her though."
"Daddy, if Santana can have her friend over, can I bring Finn?" Rachel asked.
"Sure honey." Carlos answered, not really interested in the conversation.
"So, Santana, you're still set on that black for your room?"
It was the time Santana had been dreading all week. She had to talk to her teammates. She couldn't let this go on. She had to bridge the divide or whatever it was Lucy had said. They were in the locker room before the game, the girls were mostly just hanging out. Santana was alone on a bench when she approached the girls.
She took a deep breath and settled a scowl on her face. She never said she was going to be nice about it. "Look, I don't know what your problem is with me, I honestly don't know what I did to piss you guys off so much. I just want to play soccer, and you are not letting me."
Some of the girls frowned, and some even laughed at her. In the end, it was the captain that spoke, her name was Addison. "Look, I get that you're new here, so you don't understand the rules. But you broke a pretty big one."
"Please, enlighten me about these rules of yours." Santana said angrily.
"You're friends with that loser. You make us all look bad." Addison said just as angry, standing up from the bench. She was taller than Santana, but the brunette wasn't intimidated.
"I'm making you look bad. I would think that the fact that you haven't even scored one goal, and you were demolished last game made you look bad. And don't even get me started on your last season, you won like, what, two games?" Santana said, squaring up to her captain.
"Yeah, well, that's not how things go around here." The captain said, losing her confidence a bit.
"If you passed me the fucking ball, then maybe things would change. Maybe you would start winning for once."
"What makes you so sure we would start winning with you? No one's seen you play, and we already have a striker." Addison said, crossing her arms.
"Your striker is shit. No offence." Santana said, looking at said striker. "And you haven't seen me play 'cause you don't pass me the ball. For a childish reason might I add. I scored more goals than all of you combined, maybe you should think about that." Santana explained angrily, picking her things up and walking to the door. "And as I see it, the only losers at this school are you guys." She finished, walking out to the pitch.
"More goals than all of us, who does this girl think she is?" Addison scoffed angrily.
"Um, guys? She was actually telling the truth, I just looked her up. Her old school stats say she had like thirty goals last season." One of the girls said, looking at her phone, stunned.
"Who the hell asked you Tina?" Addison complained angrily.
Santana just sat on the bench the whole game, she barely paid any attention. But when she did, she could see the team getting demolished. She spent most of the game watching Lucy take pictures or watching the sky, bored out of her mind. She considered quitting the team if things didn't get better. Maybe she could join one of those private clubs. She was snapped out of her thoughts as she heard the final whistle. The team had lost 5-0. Santana just scoffed and picked her things up.
"There's a meeting after this Lopez!" She could hear the coach scold her.
"It's not like I'm needed in it." Santana snapped back. "Anything you have to tell me, you can do it on Monday."
After that Santana just walked over to the football field where the game was in place. Lucy was already there, taking some pictures of the team. Santana walked up to her.
"Hey." Santana greeted softly, her anger slowly leaving her body.
"Hey." Lucy said, looking away from her camera, and looking at her friend. "I take it the game didn't end well?"
"No," Santana pouted. "And I had a fight with the team before, and I kind of screamed at my coach just now."
Lucy stared at her for a second, thinking it was ridiculously cute how she was pouting. "Jesus."
"Yeah, but it's over now. How much until the game ends?" Santana asked, just wanting to go home.
"Like two hours." Lucy grimaced, she knew Santana was tired.
"Jesus fucking christ, how long are these games?" The brunette complained.
"Like three hours."
"How is that possible? I thought it was divided in quarters or something." Santana frowned, confused.
"Yeah, but they stop the clock, and they change offence and defence teams all the time." Lucy explained.
"You really know a lot about sports." Santana mused, she still didn't understand football at all.
"I spend a lot of time watching sports."
"Do you actually like them?" Santana asked.
"I don't think so. Most of them bore me, but I learned to like them." Lucy explained. "Anyways, I should be able to leave in like half an hour. I just have to leave the camera in the office."
"Sure, I can't wait for the weekend to finally start." Santana said, a little bit excited.