Part I

17:00

"Here, let me get that for you," Santana offered.

The blonde woman glanced at Santana and flashed her a weak smile. "I'm fine," she insisted.

For a few moments, Santana raised her eyebrows dubiously as she watched the woman struggle with her too large duffel bag. It was quite…endearing, Santana had to admit. See, it wasn't that the blonde was short. In fact, she was definitely taller than Santana, but, unlike Santana, she wasn't wearing 3-inch heels for this 12-hour flight.

Chuckling, Santana stepped up to the blonde and easily helped her push her bag into the overhead compartment. "See? Wasn't that easy?" Santana asked with an amused grin.

The woman nodded as a small smile graced her lips. "Thank you." Then, as if realizing something, she looked down the aisle behind her and whirled back to face Santana. "Oh, gosh, I'm in your way, aren't I?" Her eyebrows furrowed, and she quickly slid into her seat to allow Santana room.

Santana tilted her head and smirked. "Actually," she said, taking a seat right next to the woman, "I'm sitting right here."

The woman grinned back but didn't say anything more.

They studied each other for a few moments, both noticing right away the very different yet undeniable beauty before their eyes. Santana broke the silence first—sure, the blonde sure was pretty, but it wasn't like she hadn't seen better. With a smug grin, she extended her hand. "Santana," she told the woman.

The woman smiled back flirtatiously as she slipped her hand into Santana's. "Quinn."

Santana shook Quinn's hand a few times while barely caressing the back of Quinn's hand with her thumb. Even after the handshake, Santana didn't let go. "That's a very pretty name, Quinn," she said instead.

Quinn blushed, and Santana smiled even wider before finally releasing Quinn's hand.

"Thanks," Quinn said quietly. "That's very kind of you."

Santana almost laughed out loud at the comment. She was anything but kind. But when it came to attractive women like this one next to her, she wouldn't mind cutting back on an insult or two.

Santana wasn't going to deny it. She had it bad for blondes.

But blondes had it even worse for her.

17:30

As everyone slowly drifted off to sleep around her, Santana was as wide awake as ever. With her eyebrows furrowed and her lips pursed, she meticulously dragged her finger across the screen. Just a little more… Her finger trembled in place.

It was so close she could taste it.

C'mon now, it's your last bird. Focus, Santana. Focus.

When she felt a hand tap her shoulder, she almost jumped out of her seat. She briefly jerked her head up and caught a flash of blonde before she gazed devastatingly back at her iPhone. The bird had disappeared, but the pig remained.

"Fuuuccckkk," she groaned. Just like that, it was gone—her rare, rare chance to break her high score. You don't get to enter the world rankings of Angry Birds without turning a little obsessive.

A gentle voice interrupted her misery. "I'm sorry, Miss, but you'll have to turn that off now as we'll be taking off soon."

Santana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Miss," Santana hissed through clenched teeth, "I don't think you understand the gravity of what just happened." After a moment of silence timed strategically for the words to sink in, Santana tore her eyes from her phone and bore them into the flight attendant at her side.

And then she faltered at the unexpected sight.

She felt her dark eyes relax at the hair that appeared even blonder now that she really looked at it. She felt her lips part dazedly as she took in the piercing blue eyes that gazed back at her with concern. At last, she felt herself gulp as her eyes ran down the woman's body—all the way from her pretty face to her ample chest to her narrow waist and finally down to her long, long legs.

The flight attendant tilted her head confusedly both in reaction to Santana's unnecessarily harsh words and to her sudden and obvious ogling. "No," the woman said slowly, "I don't understand."

Santana opened her mouth to speak but lost herself again in those damn blue eyes.

"Well, then," the flight attendant said unsurely, "if you need anything, just click this button." She gestured at the flight attendant call button on the remote control under Santana's television screen and waited for comprehension to dawn on the blank face.

Finally, Santana nodded.

The flight attendant smiled back weakly and quickly shuffled down the aisle once again.

Alright, let's be honest here. Santana totally checked the woman's ass out as she clicked her way down the narrow passageway in those heels and that tight skirt. In fact, Santana never appreciated a uniform more than she did then. She only wished she could see that beautiful blonde hair out of that tight bun it was in. She bet the woman's hair would be so silky and smooth, her fingers would just slide right through…

18:00

"Juice?"

Santana quickly looked up from her mini television screen at the sound of the voice. When the woman turned toward her, she sighed. Wrong flight attendant. Too…redheaded and too skinny. When she glanced back at her screen, the movie had already moved on to another scene, and she had no idea what was going on. With a frustrated huff, she tried rewinding the movie a little, but the stupid machine rewound way too much. After jamming at the remote a few more times, Santana gave up and slumped back into her uncomfortable economy class seat, the only kind she could afford as a meager grad student still struggling to pay off her college tuition debt.

The flight attendant with the tray of juice finally reached Santana. With a warm smile, she extended the tray toward her. "Juice?"

Santana only eyed her briefly before rolling her eyes. "No," Santana replied flatly, still a little bitter about the movie disruption.

Maybe Santana spoke too loudly or maybe her evil energy simply spreads beyond the intended victims, but a few heads immediately turned toward her. Already used to the attention, Santana merely looked at the curious passengers with bored eyes. That was, until she noticed the figure eyeing her from the other aisle.

It was the flight attendant from before. She shot Santana a mildly disapproving look before she continued offering the cups of juice on her tray to the other passengers.

Santana sighed. The woman probably thought she was a huge bitch by now. Which Santana was. But she didn't need to know that.

19:00

Since tossing and turning didn't work, Santana gave up on trying to sleep and instead decided to get up and stretch out her legs a little.

She walked all the way down her aisle to the end of the plane where there was a small space to stand next to the bathroom. A few people were waiting for their turns to go to the bathroom, and Santana couldn't help but severely judge all of them.

Sure it was a 12-hour flight, but that didn't mean you could look like shit. With a smirk, Santana ran her hand slowly through her hair, tousling it back to perfection. She didn't even need a mirror to know that she looked hot. She always looked hot.

Some members of the cabin crew were shuffling back and forth busily around her. On instinct, Santana inspected each and every one of them only to be disappointed by her observations. Weren't flight attendants supposed to be hot? What was up with these flight attendants then? And where the hell was the hot one from before?

As if the universe knew exactly what she was thinking, the hot blonde attendant appeared right next to the big-nosed flight attendant Santana was scowling at. The blonde noticed Santana's disgusted face right away, and she frowned just the slightest bit. She turned to the brunette with the nose Santana apparently disapproved of and whispered something in her ear. The brunette nodded and quickly walked away.

For a second, Santana watched the woman attempt to speed walk with her short legs. Even with heels on, she was way shorter than Santana, making Santana briefly wonder if the woman's height was inadequate enough to legally make her a midget. Santana pursed her lips in thought. Probably, she decided at last.

The hot flight attendant had just fished three blankets out of the cabinet and was about to deliver them when Santana grabbed her wrist. Game on.

The flight attendant immediately spun around, gazing back at Santana with questioning blue eyes.

Santana smirked. "Hey," she drawled with a toss of her chin.

Furrowing her eyebrows, the woman asked, "Can I help you, Miss?"

"Why don't you ever come down my aisle anymore?" Santana teased.

The woman blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You only came down my aisle once," Santana explained. "When you ruined my game of Angry Birds, by the way," she added.

The flight attendant squinted her eyes even further.

"But I'll let it go this time 'cause you're pretty cute," Santana said with a suggestive smirk.

"I'm sorry," the woman replied harshly as she jerked her wrist out of Santana's hold, "but if you don't need anything, I'll be attending to other passengers now."

Santana flinched at the woman's bitter tone. Clearly not used to such a reaction to her natural Lopez charm, she simply stood still with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Contrary to her appearance, it seemed the flight attendant wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. Mmm, Santana mused, all the better. The corners of her mouth slowly twitched up again into her usual smirk as she watched the flight attendant strut down the aisle. A hot, assertive blonde with the softest blue eyes that betrayed the innocence she still retained from her childhood… Santana nodded to herself once. She could work with that.