Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 30th cycle. Now cycle 31!

Hear that little bird twitter! Been thinking about doing this for a couple days, then this morning decided to just go for it. If you go there, find 'gleekathon' and there I'll be. There's also a video explaining everything... Yep... ;) Check it out!

In case you didn't see it yesterday... The gleekathon songbook is now available, and this week (thursday to wednesday) is dedicated to a friend whose birthday it was yesterday. The link to the songbook and a video explaining this week are both available on gleekathon twitter :D

"Paying Your Dues"
Santana & Rachel, Catalina (OC)

Santana sometimes felt more like the cool aunt than the big sister when it came to Catalina. She was only nine, barely more than half of Santana's age now, but that wasn't the reason, at least not completely. The fact was she and her sister were very much alike… Catalina just had the misfortune of having come second. Their parents had learned from their first daughter's childhood, and those lessons were swiftly applied to how they handled the second. And the issue that had sent Catalina to her sister this time was to be filed under "extracurricular endurance" — Santana and Catalina both had a number of activities they had begged and begged to join, only to abruptly quit, and now their parents had stopped trying.

Santana was lying on her bed, carefully flipping the pages of a magazine, having just finished doing her nails, when Catalina came huffing in, plopping down next to her sister, belly up and face to feet. Santana waited, expecting to hear what was on her mind, and when it didn't come, she raised her head, poking her sister's shoulder with her toes.

"Hey, hey," she teased, until she got a sound out of her. "What's troubling now?" she asked.

"What else?" Catalina extended, sounding as cranky as they came.

"Great," Santana spoke to herself, turning on her side so she could see her sister. "I was thinking of maybe going down to the mall. You want to come?"

"Okay…" Catalina shrugged.

Twenty minutes later, as they rode up the escalator, 'gentle prodding' hadn't worked yet to wrestle out the problem, which only left 'direct approach.'

"What did you ask them?"

"Lessons… ballet…" she answered.

"Didn't you do that already? You went for two weeks, and…"

"Please, I was seven," Catalina defended herself. "I wasn't ready."

"And you are now?"

"I think so."

"You said 'I think so' to them? Rookie mistake," Santana shook her head.

"But I didn't mean it like that. I really want to do it now, I know I can do it," she insisted. Santana looked at her. Their parents may have given up, but Santana could still tell the difference… This was no fad. She also knew no amount of pleading would make them open their wallets, especially for something she had already given up on before.

The solution presented itself a lot faster than she'd expected, though she was in no way ready or willing to entertain it. She still denied even having the girl's number on her cell phone, so having to use it—and for this—was something she'd claim as last resort.

But by the time their mall escapade had ended, and she'd had time to really talk with her little sister, she was left to begrudgingly cash in that last resort. She sent a text message and asked her to meet her at school before first period the next day. She did wonder if Rachel would think it was a joke and not show up, but then the next morning… there she was.

"What's this about?" Rachel asked, direct. Santana had the reflex telling her to fold her arms, but she kept them down.

"I need to ask a favor," she started. Rachel's expression made her carry on at the same pace. "It's not for me; it's my little sister." Rachel didn't say anything, but she was listening. "She wants to take ballet lessons. Our parents won't pay because she gave up last time they signed her up two years ago, but I know she's serious about it now… and I need to make it happen for her," she shrugged, getting to the point.

"What do you want me to do?" Rachel asked, showing herself understanding at least as far as where they had gotten.

"Well you do ballet, so you've reminded us once or fifteen times. I figured you could help somehow…" Rachel considered this.

"Well… I could teach her, at least enough that your parents can see she's serious, then they might change their minds on paying for it," she laid out her idea, unsure if Santana would accept it or just throw it back in her face. It did cross her mind, but then so did her sister's potential disappointment.

"Okay… yeah… we could try that," she slowly agreed, but then just in case, "This stays between us."

"Sure," Rachel promised.

Santana had spent the rest of the day actually excited to get home and tell her sister. As expected, Catalina was bursting at the idea. Still Santana made sure to remind her of the terms… She had to be serious about it.

The day finally came, and under the pretense they were headed to the park, Santana took her sister to Rachel's house. All she hoped was that Catalina wouldn't ask her to stay, and she didn't. Now she had an hour or so to kill. She thought about calling Brittany, but then… she was probably with Artie… With not much else to do, she ended up staying in the car, waiting. It was just taking forever, and she didn't want anyone spotting her…

When the time was finally done, she went back, at least a little curious to see how it had gone. When she saw her young sister's face, she knew she was in trouble… She looked just… overjoyed. The lessons had gone very well. With a half committed farewell, she ushered Catalina away.

Of course then the ride home was filled with praise, not only for her progress in one little hour, but also for her teacher. 'Miss Rachel,' she called her, and Santana almost begged her not to call her that. What was Catalina seeing exactly, that Rachel Berry didn't unnerve her?

This fact carried right on as a few weeks, and more lessons, went by. Catalina was only getting better, and by her account, so was 'Miss Rachel.' This then put Santana in an awkward position. Publicly she felt she had an image to uphold, but if it was just them, maybe for this secret arrangement of theirs, she found it harder to be a bitch to her. And then came the demonstration.

One afternoon, Catalina wanted to show Santana what she'd learned at her last lesson. She let her do it, and… for her age and her amount of lessons, she was kind of fantastic. Santana rewarded her for this with a hug, and a promise she would attend her next lesson… She kind of had to see for herself.

Rachel was surprised to see her there, but she offered her a seat and the day's lesson began. What Santana saw was begging to make her smile. Her sister was so minded about this, and this was just a moment of pride for her… She'd been right to trust her wish to do this, and now they'd get to show their parents how wrong they had been about Catalina.

When the lesson ended, Catalina went to change back in her street clothes, leaving Santana alone with Rachel. "She looks up to you," Santana ended up revealing. Rachel paused, turning.

"Not as much as she looks up to you," she revealed back, getting a tentative smile from Santana. She took this as a cue to take a couple of steps forward.

"She wanted me to talk to you about continuing her lessons with me for a while longer. I don't mind really, happy to do it. She's a great girl."

"Yeah, she is," Santana let out a bit more of her smile, and Rachel took a step.

"I see what you're doing, you know? Trying to be nice when it's just us…" Santana got up. "I'm not saying that's bad, and I'm not going to impose, but… As long as it's going to be that way, you… If you ever want to talk to me, I…"

"Talk about what?" Santana briskly cut in. Rachel stepped forward; Santana wanted to step back.

"I saw you out there, when we did 'Born this way.'" She saw Santana take a quick look to the bathroom door, knowing her sister was in there. "I didn't tell anyone," she promised. "I won't…"

"What's there to tell?" Santana tossed back.

"'Lebanese'?" Rachel went on, kindly, which only lit the flame.

"Look, just because you have two gay dads it doesn't give you any kind of authority on…" She came up short on words… So much for keeping it civilized for Catalina's sake, because there it was… Had she just come out to Rachel Berry?

"Maybe not the same, but… I'm here, you know? And no one else has to know, since this is already a secret," she pointed out. Santana had no way to answer to that. "Doesn't have to be now, just… know the option's there."

When Catalina came from the bathroom the girls snapped out of it and focused back on her. Catalina said goodbye to Miss Rachel… Santana said she might attend the next lesson, too, maybe… She didn't know yet…

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!