The Sound of Silence

Chapter One

A/N: So I know you guys are probably like another one? I know I have a lot of stories out right now, but when I have an idea I can never ignore it no matter how hard I try lol Hopefully you enjoy…

Santana walks into school, her eyes glued to the floor beneath her as her fingers grip so tightly onto her backpack that her knuckles turn white. She hates going to school, and she especially hates walking down the crowded hallway. She'd tried convincing her mom to let her be home schooled, but there was no way she could do that, because her mom works all day and they couldn't afford to have someone come and teach her. She just really doesn't like people looking at her. Even though to be honest, nobody is looking at her. Nobody even knows she exists. In an exception to her best friend Tina.

The only reason she became friends with Tina is because they're at the bottom together. They're both losers and and they can relate to each other because they both have high social anxiety and get picked on. Santana has it much worse than Tina, but they still can relate to each other. And isn't that what friends are? People who can relate to one another on some level?

In theory you don't pick your friends, not in high school anyways. Society and the social hierarchy chooses them for you. Or you could just opt to be alone, which is what Santana used to do, and still would like to be doing. However, Tina convinced her that they needed at least one friend. And if she's being honest, she does love Tina and she is glad she has her in her life. Before her, she'd never had a friend, and it makes High school just a bit easier. High school is a cruel place. It's eat or be eaten and you could call Santana a vegetarian.

Tina is extremely shy, almost more than Santana is, but not quite. She is also goth, and mainly wears nothing but black. She gets made fun of for being goth, although Santana doesn't understand why it's a bad thing, black is a good color. It's slimming, and neutral. It doesn't stand out or attract attention. Although her outfits even when black do attract attention. She's been known to wear some crazy things, which is confusing. She hates attention, so why wear things that will get you even more?

Santana gets pulled from her thoughts when she feels someone collide into her. Her heart starts beating faster in her chest and she squeezes her eyes closed. Sucking in a deep breath, she prepares for the worst, but it never comes. "Watch were you're going freak," a guy mumbles, and then there is nothing.

She takes a minute to get her breathing back to normal then slowly opens her eyes. The hallway is still bustling with students but nobody is paying her any attention. Good. Whoever bumped into her was gone and she is okay.

Santana sees Tina a few feet away at her locker. They weren't lucky enough to have lockers next to each other. However, Tina was lucky enough to get one on the end and her only neighbor is stoner Brett who is totally harmless. He's never even at his locker, probably because he doesn't remember where it is.

Santana on the other hand was on the other side of the school and stuck in between a Cheerio and some guy on the Rugby team. She's actually started carrying most of her books around all day just to avoid having to go to her locker. It can be a pain sometimes, because it makes her backpack heavy and she has to even carry a couple of them sometimes because they wont even fit in the bag. But it's better than getting slushied or ridiculed by them.

She quickly makes her way over to Tina, gripping tighter onto her backpack as she walks through the crowd, trying not to get trampled. "Hey Santana," Tina greets with a smile as soon as she sees her.

Santana immediately smiles back at her and gives her a small wave. She reaches up and adjusts her glasses before letting her hands grip onto her backpack once again. She leans up against the wall next to Tina's locker as the other girl finishes loading things into her backpack.

A group of Cheerio's walk by and all of their eyes find Santana and Tina. Santana can see them looking them both up and down. Santana's fingers grip tighter to her backpack and she swallows hard. The girls whisper to each other and giggle, probably saying very mean things about the two girls as they continue walking down the hallway.

They were judging her clothes probably. Santana is definitely not the most fashionable. She wears skinny jeans, but she buys them a couple of sizes too big because she doesn't like them skin tight. And then to top that off, she either wears solid button ups, sweater vests, or sweaters with animals on them. They're comfortable and they aren't revealing.

Heat radiates from Santana's face and she bites down hard on her lip. She pulls her eyes away from the retreating girls and looks over at Tina who didn't seem to even notice the group of cheerio's.

"Did you study for our Chem test today?" Tina asks, turning towards Santana with a slight frown.

Santana nods her head in response and looks back at her expectantly.

Tina knows Santana is asking her the same question so she shakes her head slightly. "I completely forgot." She admits with a guilty smile. "I was doing all of my other homework last night and kept trying to remember if I had anything else, but I completely forgot about the Chem test." She explains with a sigh.

Santana pouts sympathetically at Tina. If it were Santana that had forgotten to study, she'd be freaking out right now. But that would never happen, because Santana is very organized and writes everything down in her planner. She's tried to get Tina to use one, but the girl never remembers to write stuff down in it.

Also Santana studies every night, every subject, just to make sure she's caught up on everything. She finds studying fun. Instead of watching TV or hanging out with friends, she likes to read her text books and take notes. She knows it's not normal for a teenager to find studying fun. It's just another thing that makes her a loser.

Santana pulls her backpack off and unzips it. She pulls a binder out and places the bag down on the ground so she can open the binder without dropping it. She flips through a few pages and then passes it over to Tina.

Tina looks down at the paper and realizes it's Santana's study notes. It's basically everything she needs to know, organized and highlighted in different colors. She looks up at Santana and smiles gratefully at her. "Thank you so much," She says, reaching out to hug her friend.

The chemistry test isn't until after lunch, so Tina will have half a day to study, including lunch. It won't be enough time to study properly, but it'll help her out.

Tina puts the binder in her backpack and then looks back over at Santana. "Are you ready to go to class?" She asks, shutting her locker. She throws her bag over her shoulder and turns to face Santana.

The brunette nods her head, her eyes glancing around the crowded hallway. She's doing the math in her head on how long it should take to reach their first period class. She's already figured it out and if they walk at a fast pace and don't hit by too many people it normally takes about 46 seconds to get to the safety of the classroom. However, even though she's done the math, she still likes to do it every morning. It just reassures her.

She can see the classroom door in the distance and she turns back to Tina, nodding for her to go ahead. Once Tina starts walking, Santana follows close behind, her eyes darting around at the crowd as they make their way through.

They almost reach the door, but someone catches Santana's attention. It's Brittany Pierce. She's walking down the hallway towards them, her minions, Quinn, Puck, Sugar and Sam directly behind her. They're all her best friends, except Sugar. Sugar just kind of follows her around like a puppy dog, wanting to be just like her.

Brittany is the badass of the school. She is always getting into fights with people or doing something to end up in detention. She's probably broken just about every rule there is to break and then some.

Santana watches her walk past, her face sporting her typical 'no fucks' look. She's wearing dark skinny jeans, a wife beater and her black leather jacket. Her friends are wearing similar things, it's what they wear almost every day. Brittany, like Tina wears a lot of black too. But she is definitely not goth. Just badass.

"Santana?" Tina calls, snapping the Latina out of her trance.

She pulls her eyes away from Brittany's retreating form and looks over at her best friend who is looking at her confused.

"You okay?" she asks Santana, looking concerned. Tina places a gentle hand on her forearm, and Santana shakes her head, trying to clear her brain enough to answer the question.

She gives Tina a reassuring smile and nods her head. Tina eyes her curiously for a moment but nods and walks into the classroom, followed by Santana.

o0o0o

Brittany walks out the doors of McKinley High and makes her way over to the football field, her friends following closely behind. They walk underneath the bleachers and all find spots in the grass to sit down.

"Won't we get into trouble for skipping class?" Sugar asks worriedly, watching as the others sit down. She hovers next to Brittany, biting on her lip nervously. She glances around to make sure nobody is out there and that nobody sees them, and is relieved to see nobody. When you're underneath the bleachers you can't see the school and there is a fence right in front of them where the bleachers end, hiding them away from basically everyone. You'd have to actually walk under the bleachers to see them.

Everyone rolls their eyes at her, but choose to ignore her. Except Brittany, "Who cares?" She asks simply, pulling a bag of weed out of her backpack. She pulls out an already rolled up joint and places it between her lips as she pulls a lighter out.

Brittany takes a hit from the joint then holds it up to Sugar, offering her a hit. She raises her brows waiting to see if Sugar is going to take the joint and join them or if she's going to chicken out and go back to class.

Sugar of course takes the joint from Brittany with a sigh and sits down next to her, making the blonde smirk. She takes a slow drag then pulls away coughing uncontrollably. She's obviously never smoked weed before.

The others can't help but laugh at her and Puck reaches over grabbing it from her to use it himself.

Sugar has been following them around for weeks now, trying to get them to let her hang out. However, they always blew her off. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that Brittany decided it could be fun to let her hang out with them. She'll basically do anything that she tells her to do, no matter what it is.

Quinn hadn't been happy when she found out Brittany had invited Sugar to hang out with them. But now she's getting used to the girl, and it's a plus that she can be a complete bitch to her and Sugar just takes it without a word. She also likes having someone to boss around and do whatever she asks her to do.

"So what are we doing tonight?" Sugar asks, bouncing a little in place, smiling widely.

Quinn gives Brittany an annoyed expression, still blaming Brittany when Sugar gets on her nerves. Sure she likes having her around sometimes, but she also annoys her most of the time too and when Sugar does do something annoying, she blames Brittany.

However, it doesn't effect Brittany and she just takes another hit off the joint and lies back on her elbows. She simply shrugs her shoulders to answer Sugar's question and lies down fully on her back after passing the joint over to Sam.

"Me and Brittany have plans," Puck informs them with a smug grin. He looks over at Brittany and winks at her. "But it shouldn't take long so you guys can come over afterwards." He adds with a smirk.

Brittany rolls her eyes, but doesn't comment. She did agree to go over to Puck's tonight, which of course meant to hook up. She doesn't hide the fact that they hook up, all of their friends know about it. It's nothing serious, they're definitely not in a relationship, but he's a good lay and a girl has needs. It's easy because he doesn't want a relationship so it doesn't get complicated.

Sam has a pretty big crush on her, but she's not interested in him. Which is why she's never hooked up with him and she does everything she can to not enable him. He's cute and a good friend, but she doesn't want to be in a relationship with him. She knows if she hooked up with him, he'd get even more attached than he already is to her and it would just make everything awkward.

Brittany doesn't do awkward.

A lot of guys like Brittany, but she's never found anyone that she'd wanted to be in a relationship with. She's hooked up with a lot of guys, but she's never felt anything for any of them. She doesn't know why, maybe she's just meant to be single and have hook ups. It's a lot easier and more stress free that way anyway.

"I just got the new Call of Duty," Sam informs them excitedly.

Puck puts his fist out and Sam bumps it with him.

"As long as there is liquor, I'm in." Brittany says airily and just like that their plans for the night are made.

o0o0o

Santana walks into her house after school and spots her older brother, Manny sitting on the couch, stuffing his face with cheetoes and watching TV. She places her backpack down on the floor and sits down next to him. "Hey," he mumbles, his mouth full of chips, some crumbs flying out as he speaks.

Santana grimaces and he just smirks. "Hey," She says back, slouching against the couch, and directing her attention over to the TV he is watching. It's on some sports news show and she isn't really sure what they're talking about. Possibly Football, or maybe basketball?

"How was school?" He asks, brushing the crumbs off of his shirt.

Frowning, Santana shrugs her shoulders and starts picking at the hem of her sweater. "School," She answers vaguely. "I g-got a 100 on my math test." She adds with a growing smile.

Manny smiles proudly at her and nods his head. "Good job," He commends, punching her arm affectionately, making her fall over onto the couch with a giggle. "I wish I got your brain." He says with a smirk.

Santana has always been really good at school. The only time she'd ever gotten anything under an A+ was when they first figured out she couldn't take tests in the classroom. They realized she has a problem concentrating with everyone else in the room, so she now goes to the testing room where she can sit all by herself to be tested.

Manny on the other hand hasn't been that great at school. He gets good enough grades to pass, but he's never been a straight A student. He is however, a sports star. He'd played football, rugby and was on the swim team in high school. He was the star player of all teams too. He went to college with a football scholarship, but got hurt halfway through the season. He'll get to return and play again next year when he fully recovers.

It's selfish, but Santana is glad that he got to come home for a semester. She isn't happy that he was hurt, but she'd really missed him when he was gone. Manny had always been there for her and basically helped raise her. It was definitely very unsettling not having him around anymore.

"Did you have any problems at school?" He asks, pulling her from her thoughts. Santana shakes her head, and looks down. "You sure?" He asks, ducking his head to find her eyes.

Santana looks up at him and nods her head, reassuring him.

Manny nods, accepting the answer and stands up off the couch. "Mom is working late again so we're on our own for dinner." He informs her, making his way to the kitchen.

Santana gets up off the couch and follows him. She sits on a stool at the island and watches him rummage through the fridge for a few minutes.

"What do you want?" He asks her, glancing over his shoulder at her. "There is some leftover something." He says, his face scrunching up as he pulls the tupperware out of the fridge. He takes the lid off of it and takes a whiff, before grimacing. "Okay, you probably shouldn't eat that." He says, making Santana giggle.

Santana slides off the stool and walks over to her brother, glancing over his shoulder into the fridge. "D-do we have any frozen pizza? I want p-pizza." Santana says, trying to see into the freezer over him.

Manny pulls out a oven pizza and presents it to Santana who smiles happily.

The two of them end up eating pizza and watching TV the rest of the night. Well, Manny watches TV and Santana sits at the coffee table in front of him, doing her homework.

o0o0oo

Lunch time at school always makes Santana's anxiety go up. She had been eating in the bathroom for years just to avoid the chaos in the lunch room. It's always so loud and crazy and it just freaks her out. Not to mention, she had no friends to sit with and there was never an empty table where she could just sit alone.

But ever since she had become friends with Tina, the girl made her come into the cafeteria. She was forced to sit with the couple of other friends that Tina has. They're all sweet and she's never had a problem with any of them, it's just she doesn't like groups.

First at the table, besides her and Tina is Artie. He is in the AV club, the chess club, on the debate team and just about every other nerdy club there is. He actually makes Santana laugh a lot because he is super white and nerdy but he thinks that he is totally gangster.

Santana's pretty sure he has a huge crush on Tina, but he has never had the nerve to ask her out. She's not really sure if Tina likes him back, but she thinks that she possibly could. They don't really talk about boys or girls with each other. They don't hang out a lot after school, but when they do it's to study or something. They don't ever just sit around and gossip.

The other person at the table is Rachel Berry. Santana has never really been too found of the girl. She talks a lot, which Santana supposes, makes up for the fact that Santana never talks. Rachel talks enough for all of them.

Santana always just sits quietly, listening to the conversations at the table. It's usually the same. Artie is always talking about a video game, or some kind of technology that nobody else at the table gets or can converse with him about. Except for Santana, but she doesn't ever speak up so that conversation doesn't last long.

Then Rachel spends the rest of the time blabbing about the Glee club that she is in. It only has like 6 members right now so they can't even compete. Artie and Tina are in it as well and they're trying to get Santana to join. They told her she didn't have to sing, just stand in the background and sway and move her lips. But the thought of getting on stage in front of so many people completely freaks her out. She doesn't see how Tina does it, as shy as she is.

A few minutes before the bell rings, Santana excuses herself from the table as always and throws her trash away. She pulls her backpack over her shoulders and walks out, wanting to beat the bell. It's always even more chaotic when the bell rings, because everyone gets up at the same time and it's like trying to fight through a mob.

So Santana had started leaving in enough time to get to her classroom just as the bell is ringing.

o0o0o

Santana walks down the hallway, heading for her last class of the day. She can breathe a little easier now, because the room is only a few feet away from her and it's the last class. She will soon enough be able to go to the safety of her home, away from the school and all of these people.

She almost gets to the door when she notices more people in the hallway than normal. They all seem to be in a circle around something and they're all shouting and cheering.

Santana grips tighter to her backpack and squeezes through the crowd, just trying to get to her classroom that they are all crowded in front of. She manages to push through most of the crowd, her head down, when she gets shoved. It happens fast and she tries to catch her balance, but ends up falling to the ground, her glasses falling off in the process.

She gasps and gets on her knees, feeling around on the floor trying to find them before they get crushed. She blinks her eyes a few times, trying to make everything more clear but it doesn't help. Everything is just a bunch of blurs around her.

She finally finds her glasses and as soon as she puts them on, she sees two figures right in front of her fighting. It's Brittany Pierce and the head Cheerio, Kitty. Her eyes widen and she scurries back to her feet, wanting to get far away from the scene, however as soon as she gets up, she's back down on the floor with Kitty on top of her.

"What's going on here?" Coach Beiste yells, pushing her way through the crowd.

Santana is still lying on the floor, breathing heavily, but Kitty has gotten off of her. Her heart is racing in her chest and her breathing is becoming shallow. She feels like she's about to start having a panic attack, and she can't move. She can hear Coach yelling, but she can't hear what she is saying. It just kind of sounds like the teacher on Charlie Brown.

Then suddenly, she feels herself being lifted up off of the floor. She starts kicking frantically, trying to get away, but they just hold on to her tighter.

"Calm down," The stern voice of Coach Beiste says, making her halt her movements.

She looks up and realizes it's Beiste that is carrying her, which calms her slightly. She still doesn't like being carried by this woman, but it's better than some random student or bully that was planning on throwing her in a dumpster or something.

"Are you hurt?" The woman asks placing her back down on the ground. "Do I need to take you to the nurse?" She asks, looking at Santana with stern eyes. She doesn't look sympathetic at all. She just looks intimating.

Santana shakes her head and swallows hard. She looks around the hallway for her backpack and sees it pushed to the side up against the wall. Quickly she walks over and picks it up, throwing it over her shoulders.

"Follow me to the principal." Coach says, curling her finger in a motion that says to follow her.

Santana's eyes widen and she shakes her head furiously. She hadn't done anything. Did Coach Beiste think she was apart of that fight? She was just trying to get to class and got pushed into it, literally. She was an innocent bystander.

"Now." Coach Beiste says a little too loudly, making Santana jump. She gives Santana a firm look, before turning on her heel and walking towards the principal's office. Santana knows she is supposed to follow her and she knows she will be in even more trouble if she doesn't. So she follows.

They get into the office and Santana sees Brittany and Kitty, walking out just as they're walking in. Kitty's right eye is already turning a dark shade of purple and her lip is swollen and busted. Brittany on the other hand doesn't seem to have a scratch on her.

When Santana walks past them, she meets Brittany's eyes. The blonde just scowls at her and it makes Santana look away quickly and walk a little faster into the office.

o0o0o

Santana walks into the classroom where detention is held and sees that there are no other students in the room. She lets out a breath of relief, and hopes that maybe she will be the only one there.

Ever since Principal Figgins had told her she had to go to detention, she'd been imaging all kinds of things in her head that it would be like. She's never been before, so all she had to go on was TV shows and movies. She pictured a bunch of pot heads and scary emo kids filling all of the seats, eyeing her like their next victim as she walked inside.

She imagined the teacher falling asleep at his desk and letting the bad students do whatever they pleased. She'd assumed she'd be cornered, tortured and killed and he wouldn't even notice.

However, so far it looked like she was going to be the only one in detention. She glances up at the clock and sees that it's only a minute away for detention to actually start, so surely they'd all be here by now right?

The teacher is an older woman who doesn't even glance at her when she walks in. She is doing some kind of paper work on her desk, and Santana doesn't even know if she has noticed that she's there.

She picks a seat in the front of the classroom by the door and sits down. Placing her backpack down on the floor, she pulls out her binder from math class to start on her homework. Maybe detention won't be so bad. It's just a quiet classroom and it gives her time to do her homework.

Everything was going fine and Santana had gotten a start on her homework, when she hears the classroom door open. 9 minutes late, Brittany walks into the room along with Puck.

It then hits Santana that it should be obvious Brittany and Kitty would be in detention with her. They did get into trouble for the same thing. But so far there was no kitty. Maybe she'll be even later than Brittany and Puck.

She isn't sure why Puck is in detention, but it's not surprising. Brittany's whole group is always in detention for one thing or another.

The two of them make their way down the row and sit in two seats in the very back against the wall. Brittany puts her feet up in the chair next to her and slouches down in the seat, already looking bored.

Puck sits in the seat in front of her and turns sideways, letting his head fall back against the wall and closes his eyes.

Santana watches Brittany pull out her cell phone and start doing something on it. She can't tell if she's texting or playing a game. Not that it really matters, cell phones are prohibited in detention.

Santana glances over at the teacher but the woman still hasn't looked up from her papers. She obviously doesn't care that the blonde is breaking the rules. The woman looks just as bored as Brittany and Puck do. She can tell she just wants to get out of here as well.

She looks back over her shoulder at Brittany who is now obviously playing some game, because she is tilting the phone back and forth. Santana continues watching her for a minute, until the blonde drops her hands and phone into her lap with a big sigh, obviously losing the game.

And then their eyes meet.

Santana's eyes widen as blue eyes pierce into her own dark brown ones. She jumps a little snapping out of her trance and quickly turns around in her seat, going back to her homework.

Why had she even been staring at Brittany? Now she is going to think she is some crazy stalker or something.

o0o0o

There is about 10 minutes of detention left when Santana hears movement behind her. There are footsteps approaching her and then someone sits down in the desk directly behind her. She tenses up and tries to keep her focus on her homework and ignore whoever it is behind her and not think about why they're behind her.

"Who are you?" Brittany's voice asks her.

Santana tenses even more and drops her pencil onto her desk. She swallows hard and debates on what to do next. Should she turn around? Should she just ignore her? What kind of question is that anyway?

Ignore her, she should just ignore her.

She picks her pencil back up and continues working on her homework, hoping that Brittany will get the hint and go back to the back with Puck. However, she doesn't hear her move.

There is no way she can concentrate on her homework while Brittany is still behind her, so instead she just stares down at the paper, listening carefully to the blonde behind her, trying to see what she is going to do next. Or more so hear what she is going to do next.

Maybe she shouldn't have ignored her. Brittany obviously isn't known for being nice. What if she totally kicks her ass or something? Ignoring the school's badass, isn't the best idea.

"Why you in here?" Brittany asks, trying to get her attention once again.

Santana closes her eyes and breaths in deeply, trying to calm her anxiety down. Her palms are sweating and her heart is racing. She can sense Brittany staring at the back of her head, waiting on an answer, but she just can't speak up. She glances up at the clock, hoping that it's time to go but she sill has 4 minutes. 4 minutes had never seemed like such a long time.

"Are you seriously going to sit here and ignore me?" Brittany asks, clearly getting annoyed. "You know, the no talking in detention rule doesn't actually apply." She informs her, rolling her eyes. "Mrs. Anderson doesn't care. I don't even think she can hear in the first place." She says, and both girls glance over at the older woman who is still reading over the papers on her desk.

Santana can tell she is upsetting Brittany and it makes her even more nervous. The last thing she wants to do is make Brittany angry.

Santana sighs and turns around to meet Brittany's piercing blue eyes. She's got her head tilted to the side, looking at Santana annoyed. Santana shakes her head quickly from side to side, looking at Brittany worriedly, trying to show her that she isn't trying to be rude and she's definitely not trying to piss her off.

The action just makes Brittany look at her confused. "So what is your name?" She asks slowly, still obviously confused by Santana's reaction.

Santana bites down on her lip and stares back at Brittany nervously. After a couple of seconds she turns back around and hears Brittany sigh out in frustration. She tears a sheet of paper out of her spiral and then spins back around to face Brittany and places it down in her desk.

The blonde had started to get out of her seat, but as soon as Santana turns back around, she stopped.

Brittany sits back down in her seat and looks at Santana confused, but Santana ignores her and clicks the pen in her hand. She then writes her name down on the sheet of paper and spins it around for Brittany to read.

"Santana," Brittany reads. She frowns slightly and looks up at Santana, completely confused by the situation, but then she smiles a bit. "That's a really cool name," She says, her smile growing.

Santana smiles back at Brittany timidly and she feels her face heat up.

"Yo, lets go." Puck's voice says, breaking the two girls from their trance.

Both, Brittany and Santana jump slightly at his voice and look up at him. He glances at Santana, but then his eyes move over to Brittany and he gives her an impatient look.

Santana looks up at the clock and realizes time is up and she can now go home. She turns back around in her seat and gathers her things up as Puck and Brittany walk out of the classroom. Once she gets her things all put away she stands up and throws her backpack over her shoulders and walks out.

Kitty had never shown up, which confuses her. But she is a cheerio. Coach Sylvester probably got her out of it somehow.

She sees no sign of Puck and Brittany as she exits the school and walks out to the bike rack where her bike is tied up. She doesn't live too far away from the school and she doesn't' have a car. Riding a bike is a lot better than taking the bus. One time she witnessed a drug deal in the back of the bus when she was a freshman.

Now that she thinks about it, she's pretty sure that Brittany was involved.

o0o0o

Santana walks into the house later that night and sees her brother in his usual spot on the couch. He's playing a football video game and yelling at whoever he is playing against on his headset.

As she walks behind him, she leans down and places a kiss on his cheek, making him quiet down. He looks over his shoulder and smiles at her, "Hey kid," He greets affectionately, before turning back to the screen and yelling, because apparently his opponents got a touch down.

Santana walks into the kitchen where she sees her mom sitting at the island on her laptop. She walks up behind her and sees that her mother is doing some kind of research, probably for one of her patients. She's an orthopedic surgeon and sometimes she has to find new methods or ways of doing things.

Santana smiles and hugs the woman from behind.

"Hey Mija," Maribel greets, placing her hands over her daughters hands that are around her neck. "Why are you home from school so late?" She asks concerned.

Santana had of course text her mother and told her she'd be home late, but she hadn't told her the reason. She was afraid to tell her, because she didn't want her to be mad. But it wasn't like she had actually done anything to get into to detention. It was all just a misunderstanding. She'd believe her right?

"What's wrong?" Maribel asks, closing the lid of her laptop. She gestures for Santana to sit down on the stool across from her, and watches her with worry.

Santana sighs and fiddles with her hands on the counter, thinking of what to say. She could easily lie to her mother, but she'd never done that before and she doesn't want to start. Lying is bad, and she'd never been good at it anyway. "I was…I was in d-d-detention." Santana says quietly, her eyes not leaving the counter.

It's quiet for a minute and then her mother chuckles, making Santana look up at her. "Seriously, Santana?" She asks, shaking her head. "Where were you?" She asks with a smile. "Were you at the library or something?" She asks, getting up from her stool.

Santana frowns as she watches her mom grab an orange out of the fruit bowl and then a knife. "I r-really was in d-detention." She says honestly. Maybe she didn't even have to lie, her mom doesn't believe her anyway. "I was in a f-fight." She says and it just makes Maribel laugh once again.

Maribel finishes slicing a few chunks of orange and looks over at her daughter. When she sees the serious look on Santana's face, her smile fades quickly. She eyes her for a moment, before dropping the knife and rushing over to her side. "Seriously Santana?" She asks, placing her hands on both sides of the girls face. "You better not be lying to me!" She says seriously, "Are you alright?" She asks worriedly, checking the girl up and down.

Santana pulls away from her mom and pushes her hands away from her face. "I'm fine," She mumbles.

"Santana, why were you in a fight?" Maribel asks concerned. "Were you being bullied? Who was it? Tell me!" She demands.

Rolling her eyes, Santana lets out a sigh. "I w-wasn't really in a f-fight," She informs her, confusing the older woman. "I was t-trying to get to c-class and these two g-g-girls were fighting and I got s-s-shoved to the ground and then a teacher c-came out and saw me on the ground with one of the g-girls and she just assumed I was in the f-f-fight too." Santana explains, getting worked up.

Maribel can tell Santana is getting upset. Not only by the tone of her voice, but because her stutter always gets worse when she is nervous or upset.

"Hey, it's okay," Maribel says, puling her daughter into a hug. She strokes her hair lovingly and sighs. "Did you try telling them that you weren't involved?" She asks, pulling back just slightly to look at her daughter.

Santana rolls her eyes and pulls away completely. "I c-couldn't," She admits lowly. She starts fiddling with her hands again in her lap.

"Well, you could have written it down or something honey," Maribel tells her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She knows how hard it is for Santana to communicate with most people, especially in situations like that. But she'd learned long ago that there are many ways to communicate without using her voice. She just never thinks about doing it, because she panics. "Or you should have called me."

"I'm sorry," Santana apologizes, ashamed. She knows she should have tried to do something, instead of just sit there and let them accuse her of fighting and even worse, give her detention.

Maribel pulls her into another hug and shakes her head, "Don't apologize." She tells her sincerely. "Was it just one detention? Do I need to call and talk to the school?"

Santana shakes her head, and buries her face into her mother's neck. "Tomorrow too," She mumbles into her neck.

Maribel nods and places a kiss to the top of Santana's head. "I'll call the principal." She says with finality.

o0o0o

Brittany finishes getting dressed just as her other friends show up to Puck's house. They walk inside without knocking like always, but thankfully her and Puck were already finished. Not that it'd even bother her if they walked in on them. It had happened before and she just made them get out so she could get her orgasm. Sam had been awkward the rest of that night.

Puck sets up the game and him and Sam sit out the floor in front of the bed and start playing. The girls all sit on top of his bed, Quinn making sure to pull the covers up so she isn't sitting on the sheets, where Puck and Brittany just got it on.

"You brought liquor right?" Brittany asks, settling against the headboard. She takes a cigarette from Puck's nightstand and lights it up, her eyes moving back over to Quinn.

The shorter blonde rolls her eyes and smiles, "Of course," She says as if it were obvious. She leans over and pulls her bag up onto the bed and pulls out a bottle of tequila as well as a few bottles of Miller Lite.

Brittany takes the bottle of tequila and opens it up, taking a long swig. She grimaces slightly, but hums at the warm tingly feeling it gives her. "Hey Puck?" Brittany calls, sliding down a bit to nudge the back of his head with her foot. She takes another swig as she waits for him to turn around.

When he does he scowls at her, "You just made me almost die." He informs her, before going back to his game.

Brittany rolls her eyes and takes another drink before it gets snatched away by Quinn. "That girl that was in detention with us. Do you know her?" Brittany asks curiously. She looks over at Quinn and snatches the bottle back from her and takes a drink. She then holds it out for Sugar who just looks at it with wide eyes. "Come on, you've never drank either?" Brittany asks amused.

Sugar shakes her head quickly, "No, I have." She replies. "Just not straight tequila." She says, slowly wrapping her fingers around the bottle and taking it from Brittany. She takes a whiff of it and grimaces, pulling it quickly away from her face, making Brittany and Quinn chuckle.

Brittany puts her cigarette in the ash tray on Puck's nightstand and turns her attention to the back of his head, waiting to see if he is going to answer her question. And obviously he isn't. "Puck!" She says loudly, nudging his head harder this time.

"Ow!" he exclaims, rubbing the back of his head, but not taking his eyes off the TV. "I have no idea who she was." He answers annoyed. "Some nerd, why do you care?" He asks, only half caring for the answer because he is distracted by the game.

Leaning back against the headboard again, Brittany looks back over at Sugar who is still eyeing the bottle in her hand. "Just drink it." Brittany tells her, rolling her eyes.

Sugar looks over at her and then back at the bottle cautiously. She takes in a deep breath and brings it to her lips. She holds her nose with her free hand and takes a small sip, pulling it away with a grimace before she can even get a full drink.

Brittany rolls her eyes and snatches the bottle away from her, taking another drink. "I don't know, she was just…weird." Brittany says thoughtfully. "She didn't say a word to me and when I asked her for her name she wrote it down on a piece of paper." Brittany explains.

Puck smirks, "She's a loser Brittany," He informs her. "She was probably just afraid of getting into trouble." He says with a shrug. "Or maybe it's just a nerd thing."

"Wait are you talking about Santana?" Sugar asks curiously.

Brittany quickly turns to look at the girl and nods her head, "Yeah that was her name. Do you know her?" She asks as Quinn takes the bottle from her. Brittany doesn't even notice this time because she's too interested in what Sugar has to say about Santana.

Sugar nods and shrugs her shoulders at the same time. "I know of her." She answers simply. "She has like selective mutism or something like that." Sugar says bit unsure that she had the name right. Her eyes move up to the ceiling and she thinks over her answer. "Yeah, she has like an anxiety disorder and selective mutism." She says, this time more sure.

"What the hell is that?" Sam asks from his place on the floor.

Brittany glances at him but then moves her eyes back over to Sugar for the answer. She has no idea what it is either.

"Well in certain situations like when she gets high anxiety like at school or in front of people she doesn't know, she is basically a mute." She explains, but the others still look confused. "I don't know exactly, I just know that she has the ability to speak, but sometimes she can't." She finishes with a shrug.

Brittany tilts her head to the side, pondering Sugar's words. She'd never heard of something like that before. She'd heard of mutism, but not selective mutism. "How do you know her?" Brittany asks. "And how do you know she has that?" She adds curiously and a bit skeptically.

"I know everyone and everything." Sugar replies back, making Brittany roll her eyes. It is true though. Sugar is all about gossip. She knows everything about everyone. She is better than Facebook. "It's weird she was even in detention. What did she do?" Sugar asks confused.

Brittany shrugs, "I don't know, she wouldn't answer me."

Quinn passes the bottle back over to Brittany and eyes her curiously. "Why do you even care?" She asks confused.

Brittany looks up at her and takes the bottle, shaking herself from her thoughts about Santana. "I don't." She says with a shrug. "She just seemed weirder than most of the nerds and I was curious." She explains, which makes Quinn just look even more confused.

Brittany just ignores her and turns her attention to the game the boys are playing.

A/N: Alright well let me know what you guys think and if I should continue? I already have the next couple of chapters written just need to be edited so updates shouldn't take too long! (: Just need to know if you guys want more!