It's the first day of kindergarten, and Santana's kind of nervous. Her older brother Carlos, a fourth grader, has been filling her head with stories about school-things like people bullying her for being latina, boys pulling her hair, or other kids stealing her lunch money. Her mama tells her not to listen to him, but her brother has gone through this a lot more recently than her mama, so she puts more stock in his answers.

She steps into the classroom, and it's not bad, if a little bright. The room is mostly full, and the other kids are seated at desks that are grouped into fours. The teacher, a woman maybe in her thirties, walks up to her and squats down so that they're face-to-face. The teacher gives a bright grin. "Hello. I'm Ms. Archer, and I'll be your teacher for the year. And what's your name?"

Santana tries not to roll her eyes, wanting to make a good impression. "I'm Santana Lopez."

Ms. Archer nods and says, "Well, Santana, pick any seat that you'd like."

Santana looks around and sees fours open seats. One next to a dumb-looking tall boy. She refuses to sit next to him, if only because he'll block the board. There's another seat next to this girly-looking boy, and she crosses him off her list too; he's slightly better than the other boys because he looks like a girl, but boys are gross and she'd rather not be near one if she can avoid it. The two seats left are both next to girls, a tall blonde girl and a short brunette. The tall girl is talking to two other kids, and looks pretty happy. The short brunette is focusing really hard on decorating her nameplate, and is sitting all alone at her table. The sight makes Santana kind of sad, and she decides that the brunette needs a friend more than the blonde. Plus, Santana doesn't like to share, has never liked to share, and being this girl's only friend means she'll never have to share her.

The girl looks up from her gold-star covered nameplate, startled when Santana sits next to her. Santana sticks out a hand. "I'm Santana Lopez. I'm gonna sit here. Who're you?" No one ever said she was polite.

The shorter girl shoots her a blinding grin and shakes her hand. It makes Santana feel kinda warm, like when her daddy complements her, or her baby brother Gabe does something cute. "I'm Rachel Berry. It's nice to meet you, even if you're a little rude. Are you goin' to decorate your plate too? You can borrow some of my stickers, if you want."

Santana's kind of shocked at how fast the girl's talking, trying to take in everything at once, but eventually nods when she gets what Rachel's saying. "Yeah, sure. Thanks."

"Oh, you're very welcome!" Rachel hands her a sheet of sparkly gold star stickers, and Santana takes them with wide eyes. They're actually sort of pretty, and no one's ever given her something like this before. She decides that she likes it.

From that day on, they're best friends.