Santana Lopez has not had it easy. Abandoned by her family when she most needed them, she didn't even finish high school, since she needed to start working full time to sustain herself. During her most vulnerable years, she played with drugs and started sleeping around for a fix or a few bucks. She was able to keep a poorly paid job waiting tables for a long time because even if she was completely lost, she was a tough cookie. And in some things she was too mature for her age, she didn't want to live in the streets, so she would do whatever it took to always have a roof over her head. When she was twenty-two, she was found in a dark alley, on the verge of an overdose and her clothes ripped, her own panties in her mouth, by a woman named Sue Sylvester, who was kind enough to take her to a hospital and stay by her side till she recovered. From that moment on, and even if Santana was already technically an adult, Sue Sylvester became the closest thing to a motherly figure she had had for a very long time. She obtained her GPA, and went to community college for a while, and she cleaned herself up. Life seemed to be brightening up for once.
Now she is 39, runs a small gym, where she also serves as a yoga instructor, and has a six year old son named Alonso. In retrospective, that was the weirdest, stupidest decision of her life, even though she loves her son with all her heart and soul. Why, you may think, if kids are a blessing? Well, Santana Lopez is the gayest gay of all the gays. Actually, the reason why her family abandoned her is because she came out of the closet when she was 13. And yes, Alonso was naturally conceived. See the odds? A stupid, reckless night where she was feeling lonely - and horny - a handsome man (gay but not blind) offered her a drink at a local bar. Why she fucked him still to this day escapes all her reasoning.
Her life is pretty simple, very routine and mundane, kind of...boring. She wakes up in the morning, takes Alonso to school, opens the gym, does paperwork in the mornings and teaches yoga lessons in the afternoons, picks Alonso up, goes home and sleeps to then do it again the next day, and the next, and the next. Her yoga Master, Emma Pillsbury, has recommended her to go on a spiritual retreat, but she doesn't want to leave Alonso alone. She decides, though, that she will take a much needed vacation with him.
And that is how she finds herself where she is now: checking in at the reception of a cozy and extremely beautiful Winter Lodge-Ski Resort kind of place in the middle of Utah. She chose this place because it was far enough from her hometown, but not far enough to make Alonso suffer with the travelling. Also she knew that he had asked her to learn how to ski for a while now, and she always had secretly enjoyed the whole Winter Wonderland ordeal.
When the whole checking in is cleared and she has her room's key, she grabs Alonso's hand and turns around, abruptly bumping into someone. She's about to let her sharp tongue loose when her eyes lock on blue ones and suddenly she is lost.
On the contrary, Brittany Pierce has had it all. She doesn't come from a wealthy family, for sure, but they have had enough money to cover everything, and enough love and respect for each other to raise Brittany to be the happiest human being alive. She always had a lot of friends, and even if she has been called stupid every now and again, she never let it get to her head. Her parents have always allowed her to do what she loves, even if she loves a lot of stuff, which is why she rides a motocross bike, dances at every occasion she has, and plays chess with her father to unwind. She wasn't very good at school, because her mind works a mile a minute, but she managed to graduate with fairly good grades, and decided she wanted to travel. Then she decided she wanted to photograph everything. Lastly, she opted for writing. Seeing her daughter so hyped up about everything was a joy to Whitney Pierce, but once in a while she had to sit her child down and have a real talk. Deciding her career path was one of those moments. After a lot of debating, Whitney suggested journalism, since if Brittany did good, she could be able to travel, write and photograph at the same time. Brittany wondered how she hadn't thought about that before.
Also she is an out and proud bisexual womanizer. She runs from bed to bed, always clear on her intentions, and has more fun with women than her male friends could ever dream of. Sometimes with men too, but, even if she is strongly attracted to men, she prefers the female company. Her mother is thankful that at least she is being safe and clear, and not hurting people on her way, but she can't say she approves of her daughters ways. What mother wouldn't want their baby girl to settle down and get married?
Now she is barely thirty and extremely successful in her career. So much so, that she's nominated for a Pulitzer in the upcoming awards, but she hasn't told her mother anything yet, she wants it to be a surprise. And she's living her best life. She has toned down a notch all the sleeping around, though, she's maturing and sometimes even she herself wants to find someone especial to settle down with.
The wildlife and wilderness magazine she's working for has granted her the whole holiday season as a vacation as a payback for her hard work and dedication over the years. Which is why she packs her ski gear and flies across the whole country to some secluded place in Utah she found kinda cute. She wants an adventure, a real one. She's tired of writing about other people's adventures, she wants lo live her own.
And that is how she finds herself at the reception of a Winter Wonderland-ish Ski Resort, waiting in line to do the check in. She's fascinated by everything her eyes see, and she wants to take pictures of everything, but her camera is pretty well secured inside her suitcase. As she admires the ginormous chandelier that is hanging above her head, she feels someone bump into her. She's about to say sorry, but when her eyes lock with dark orbs, she's freezes.
And this is how their story begins.