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 thursday... 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

"My Summer in the Shade"
Santana, Santana/Brittany, Catalina (OC)

[PS: Feel better Mal! :)]

Santana was well known in her household for always being the last one to get her suitcases down waiting to go, for any vacation, and any occasion that required packing a suitcase, really. She would see everyone else running around, seeking these shoes, those pants, that extension cord… Everyone going mad over suitcases… not her. No, the way she saw it there was no rush, and those who did rush would then lose the presence of mind to stop and realize they knew exactly where everything they needed was. So they ran, while she packed.

Her bit of luggage Zen now appeared to be rubbing off on little sister Catalina, who was making good progress on her suitcase, just as Santana was. They would both be ready when they needed to be, which in this case was the next morning, when the Lopez family would fly off for Puerto Rico.

She was actually looking forward to it. The way she saw it, some relaxation outside of Lima would do her some good.

She'd been expecting this trip to come and when it had there were some thoughts going through her mind, unshakeable at times, almost silly in others… There had been the thought of how great it could have been to bring Brittany along with her, which if anything gave her something to smile about. She had a feeling she'd need it; it was one thing to live in this house with her parents, but it was a whole other to have to be on vacation with them… a lot more up-close and personal time to spend together, which could be dangerous to anyone with secrets to hide.

If her little sister resembled her in a lot of ways, when it came to airplanes she was much more like their mother… She hated flying. But then for Mrs. Lopez the problem was swiftly taken care of with sleeping pills to let the flight never exist in her memories. But then Catalina never had that option. So instead Santana made it her job to keep her occupied and distracted.

Once they arrived, Santana would try and make a promise to herself… that she could have this vacation, away from all the drama she'd left behind in Ohio, which summed up to this secret she was keeping, from her parents and most people in general, of who she was starting to emerge as. But it didn't take long for her to see and know she was wrong.

As soon as they had settled in, Catalina wanted to go swimming, and Santana ended up taking her… Maybe a little sun would do them both some good. So they changed and they were off to the beach. She turned a few heads as she went along, as she was bound to, but it just didn't feel the way it used to anymore. It wasn't the same to get noticed by people when there was only one you really wanted to get noticed by now… and she wasn't even here. So she just carried on, paying little to no attention to any of them, though this would only ever end up coming off as playing hard to get, which only made them more interested, but it was up to them… They were wasting their time. At least she got to tell them off, which provided a certain amount of entertainment.

She sat on the beach, keeping an eye on her sister as she went splashing off. She wasn't about to let her get lost, or hurt… There were exactly two people she valued as most precious to her life, for so many reasons; one was Brittany, and the other was Catalina.

She watched her, running about and kicking loads of water around, generally having fun, and she had to smile at that, but at the same time it made her think, about secrets, lies… all those things they shared as sisters…

She would wonder, about what would happen if she were to tell her little sister that she was a lesbian. At first she wasn't sure if she'd even know what it meant, or if she'd see it as something bad, but gentle prodding had given her the answers: yes, and no, respectively. Then she wondered if she could be trusted not to say anything, especially to their parents, but that got a resounding and immediate yes. Catalina was, like her, a fortress when it came to secrets. She didn't slip, she didn't blab, least of all when it was between them.

Still with all these facts assembled, the one thing she asked herself the most, because really it was the one that mattered most, was whether she would reject her, if this would be the change that would mean losing her dear sister…

"Tali, not too far!" she called out to her, brought back to reality when she saw how far in the water she was getting. Catalina's head popped out of the water with a frown. Santana didn't have to call back 'don't you give me that look;' her face said it all, and Catalina swam back a bit closer, letting Santana rest back in her seat and pull her sunglasses back down.

Even if it wasn't in fact her idea to have come, it did feel something like hiding, to be out here at the moment. The people back home may or may not have known, but to her it felt the same. She liked her life, why did they have to hold so much power over her because of one word being pinned to her?

She knew change would happen, and she tried to tell herself it wasn't all bad. She had gotten to a place where she could start and be honest with herself, and she would never regret that. She had been able to make an opening with Brittany, too, and for all the heartache it had brought her it also had made her feel more loved than she ever had… She knew what the price would be, for her to hold on to more of that though… and she didn't have the strength for that much change yet… No one was more disappointed about that than she was.

Catalina eventually came back from the water, dripping a trail of water in the sand as she went, and after diving into the warmth of her towel she sat at her big sister's side, shoulder to shoulder. "You should come too," she said, indicating the water.

"Yeah, maybe later," Santana gave her a smile, reaching to pull a bit of Catalina's hair, currently plastered to her face.

"Can we just stay here the whole time?"

"I wouldn't say no," she laughed, making her sister laugh, too. Santana just looked at her little face… What if they couldn't be Tali and Tana anymore? No… that'd never happen… "I need to talk to you about something."

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!