My name is Brittany S. Pierce, I'm sixteen years old. It's three days until the first day of sophomore year. This story starts when I was on the way to my best friend Mike's house, because it's Sunday; and every Sunday we go to the dance studio and practice until one of our parents forces us to come home. As I neared Mike's house I noticed that there was a moving van at the driveway next to his. Cool! Maybe who ever lives there has a kid around my age so Mike and I can add a third person to our dance group. Mike and I are always scouting for new members. I just hope whoever is moving isn't a snob, like everyone else in this town. Let me just tell you, Lima, Ohio is not the most happening place in the world. There's only one public high school in the entire city, and the student count is still probably no more than 600 students.

"Mike!" I yelled as I threw rocks up at his window. "Michael Robert Chang Jr. if you don't come down here right now, I'm going to the studio without you!" I waited for a moment before throwing another rock up at his window, "Dance waits for no one!" Still no reply. For a moment I began to worry. Then I remembered that Mike was probably just sitting in his room acting depressed because school starts soon and Tina Blowin-Wang is still with wheelchair Artie. I'll never understand why he's so infatuated with her but he say's that they're meant to be, so I guess there's really no need to crush his dreams.

As I made my way back to the front of Mike's house there was a girl walking out of the cul de sac toward the mailboxes. She's so gorgeous, why have I never seen her before? She probably came out of the house with the moving van. The mailbox she opened said Lopez, so I'm guessing that that's her last name. She hadn't noticed me yet so I proceeded to make my way toward the end of the street.

Wait a minute, is she singing? It actually sounds kind of good. By this time I noticed that I had stopped walking and was now turned around and staring right at her. Dang it. Now I have to say something.

"Hey, uh, you're a pretty good singer," I half-yelled to her, followed by a nervous giggle. What is wrong with me? She probably thinks I'm some kind of creep or something. First she see's me creeping out from her neighbors back yard when they're obviously not home. Creepy. And now I'm standing here in the middle of the street listening to her singing. Creepy. I'm just gonna walk away now.

"I know," she giggled, "but Thanks. I'm Santana. I just moved here from Seattle. Are you a friend of the Chang's or something?" She asked as I turned my back to her. I had forgotten that I said anything to her.

"Yeah, Mike's my friend, but he's not answering so I figured I'd just head home."

"Sorry to burst your bubble blondie, but the Chang's left for some college tour thing in like Virginia. My family is house sitting for them until they come back." How does she know more about Mike's schedule than I do?

"Oh what? Really?" I asked, still kind of shocked that I didn't know about this. Why wouldn't Mike tell me that he's going to visit colleges? We've been planning to go to college together on dance scholarships since we met in dance class way back in like the third grade.

"Okay well in that case, I'll just see you around, or something..." I trailed off at the end. Turning around again to walk home.

"Wait!" She shouted, "Your name? I don't know anyone in this town really and It'd be cool to know at least one person when school starts on Wednesday. By the way I'm going into the tenth grade. What about you?" I really wasn't in the mood to have a complete conversation with a stranger, plus she seemed like she didn't care to know the answer anyway because she was kind of looking anywhere but at me..

"I'm Brittany. I'm a sophomore too, so is Mike. I gotta go now, but maybe I'll see you around or something. Well, I live like two streets over so obviously we will see each other. Uh okay, bye." And with that I turned away for the last time and made my way home. Why am I so awkward?

The next two days went by really quickly, I found that I spent most of the past two days thinking about the new girl. I couldn't seem to get her out of my head. Her voice when she was singing my the mailbox was like a simple harmony that couldn't stop hearing. I left the house probably only twice over those two days. Once to check the mail and once to go get my yearly school sports physical so that I'll be eligible to do cheerleading this year. Last year I barely even made the team because I spent the majority of tryouts sitting on the floor in the bathroom crying. I don't know how I was the only person crying, Coach Sylvester was awful. She literally scares the poops out of me. But, that's not gonna happen this year. This year I'm prepared and I know exactly what I'm getting myself into.

I'm going to bed super early tonight because I wanna be up and ready in the morning because Lord Tubbington thinks that he's coming to school with me and I need to be gone before he wakes up. My alarm clock rang at 7am. I jumped into the shower right away because I only had two hours until school starts and I still have to get dressed, make a lunch, and walk to Mike's house so he can drive us to school.

It was nearing 8 o'clock by the time I got to Mike's house. Perfect timing. I sat in the swinging chair on the Chang's front porch planning out how awesome our first day was gonna be; until I heard the garage door opening. Mike backed out his truck and I made my way over to him. As I walked around to the passenger side I saw his new neighbor girl coming down the street toward his house. As I buckled my seatbelt Mike started backing out of the driveway. He then slammed the brakes and started yelling at me.

"Brittany what the hell? You couldn't have told me that Santana was walking up behind us? I could have killed her! Holy shit!" Why is he yelling at me for this? Shouldn't he have looked into his rear view mirror before backing into the street anyway? Plus how was I supposed to know that she was even coming with us. I was about to question him on that before I realized that he was no longer in the car. I looked backwards to find Mike hugging Santana and walking with her around to my side of the truck. Crap she is coming with us. Be cool Brittany.

"Hey Pierce, open the door!" Mike half shouted at me. Mike has a two door Nissan Frontier, I think. But it has two rows but not four doors. I personally hate it. It's so inconvenient for the person in the front to have to get out just for the person in the back seats to get in and out, why couldn't they just put four doors. I must've been lost in thought for a while because Mike was still standing with Santana outside my window.

"Oh! Sorry," I stuttered as I made my way out of the car for her to get in. She got in and climbed into the back seats, then I got in and Mike closed my door for me. What the heck? Mike never closes or even opens doors for me. He's honestly probably trying to act like such a gentlemen to show off for Santana. I mean she is very pretty and she kind of smells like strawberries. But if all the guys at school start acting like Mike is toward her, it's gonna be a long year for sure.

A few minutes of awkward silence went by as we exited the neighborhood and headed to school. I was surprised that Mike was functioning so well, considering that he has to start yet another school year of chasing after Tina even though she doesn't even notice him. Mike is so backwards. He's one of the nicest guys in school. He's a wide receiver on the football team. He dances like nobodys business. And not to mention that he's literally a straight A student. Yet he chases after a gothic asian chick with a stutter. Not that I have anything against the girl, I try not to judge anyone ever since I found out that Lord Tubbington has an online gambling addiction. But really Mike, Tina? He could probably do better.

Finally Mike interrupts the silence with, "Santana um, sorry for almost running you over back there. I thought that I was supposed to be coming to your house to get you." He pretty much looks like he's gonna pee in his pants; he's so nervous.

"Oh? No problem!" She giggled, "I totally thought we agreed that I was just gonna meet you at your house anyway. So I guess it's my bad. But no worries, no one was hurt so it's all good!" Santana responded. Geeze, she's really easy going. I like that.

"Okay phew! So, what did you do for fun back in Seattle? Like uh, do you play um any sports or something?" Mike asked eagerly. Santana replied with a simple, "Nope, no sports really, my parents tell me that I'm pretty athletic. But ya know, I think I'm more of the artsy, musical type. I love to sing."

"Well if you love to sing, then I'm sure that you can try out for glee club. I heard that it's for all people who love to sing and love getting publically humiliated on a daily basis." Wait, why did I just say that. "I mean, not that you sound like the type of person who gets bullied. Musical stuff like Singing is cool. Mike and I are dancers." I looked back to see if she seemed interested.

"I wouldn't join glee club if I were you, I heard that the coach, Mr. Ryerson, is a creep. Apparently he sells drugs under the bleachers at school and he seems kind of like a pedophile if you ask me." Mike seemed to know a lot about this Ryerson guy. "Plus, the Mckinley glee club is called like music explosion or something"

"Mike, they're called rhythm explosion, chill out. How do you know so much about him anyway?" I asked suspiciously. He just shrugged his shoulders and put the car into park. I hadn't even noticed that we were at the school.

"Alright, so uh Santana do you know how to get to your classes, because I know where most of the classes are. What class do you have for first period?" He's still too eager. The three of us started to walk towards the school.

"First period, I have math with Mrs. Crenshaw. That's in room 221." Mike's face literally was shining. I thought for sure it was because he and Santana were in the same class, and therefore he could spend more time staring at her boobs. Gross. Well... not really, they are pretty great. Brittany stop, you don't even know her. I thought to myself. I turned to Mike to see what he was actually staring at. As I followed his eyes I realized that he wasn't even looking at Santana, he was looking past her toward the entrance to the school. Of course, Tina. She was standing awkwardly against a tree waiting for the bell to ring. Mike's face went from gleaming to instantly sad when he saw Artie rolling up to her.

"C'mon Mike, let's go inside. Santana, what did you say your class was? 221? My first class is in 223. I'll walk you there." I was actually pretty excited considering that meant that I could finally maybe talk to Santana without Mike. And with that the three of us entered the school to begin the first day of the best years of our lives.