It had been about a week since the scare on the phone with her dad, and finding out that her mom was pregnant. As if Santana's senior year couldn't get any busier and stressful.
But she was excited nonetheless. Being an only child was awesome, but seeing the girls on the team with siblings made her jealous sometimes. Most games, she wouldn't have anyone in the stands. Her mom tried to come out as much as possible but she understood that she had to work.
Sessions with Holly were going extremely well. Santana had been throwing a tennis ball back and forth the last couple days to slowly regain her throwing to 100%. She was pushing, especially with States literally a week away.
Holly's tentative plan was to have Santana on the field tomorrow, and she was nervous. She absolutely did not want to injure herself, especially this close to the tournament. But Brittany made sure to tell her that everything would be okay.
And Santana believed every word.
"How's your shoulder doing tonight, babe?" Brittany asked from in the kitchen. The girls were in Waimea tonight. "Did you need a ice pack?"
"No it's good tonight, thanks though." Santana was sitting on the couch in the living room, rubbing Tiger Balm on her shoulder. For her, it worked better than IcyHot did.
"I'm gonna go shower," Brittany said walking into the living room, heading towards the stairs.
"Okay. I'm gonna try finish this math, but it's kinda hard." She was running her hands through her hair when Santana felt gentle hands on her shoulders, followed with a kiss on the cheek.
"If you still need help when I'm done, I'll help you okay. Don't get too worked up."
With that, Brittany headed up the stairs and into the bathroom.
Santana always enjoyed being at her girlfriends house, and especially conversations with Brittany's parents. Tonight in particular, there was something she wanted to talk to Brittany's mom about. She heard her walking into the kitchen, so she closed her textbook and walked in.
"Aunty, can I talk to you about something?" Brittany's mom was getting used to Santana calling her aunty. She smiled and nodded, and Santana took that as a yes. "Well, lately a lot of people have been asking me what I wanted to do after high school."
"And you've been looking at West Point."
Santana was surprised, being that she hadn't mentioned it to anyone but Holly.
"Brittany asked me what it was a couple weeks ago, she noticed it on your phone when you fell asleep."
"I wasn't sure if she saw it, I figured she didn't since she didn't say anything." Santana sat on the chair across from Brittany's mom.
"She wants to. But she also wants to wait until you bring it up because she knows that the Army is a really important thing to you because of your dad."
"It is, but I mean-" Santana paused. "I just don't really know what to do. Especially now that my mom is pregnant, she's gonna need my help."
"San, here's my advice. You should do whatever makes you happy. Yes, your mom is pregnant, and having the extra help would be nice. And the good Lord knows that just having Brittany was a handful for me and her father." She chuckled. "And I know you probably want to follow in your father's footsteps to make him proud. But, if those things won't make you happy then it isn't worth doing."
Santana knew she was right.
"Didn't you say that your mom was planning on moving up to the mainland with you dad after you graduate?"
"That's her plan," Santana answered.
"And with West Point, is that something you feel like you really want to do? Because if you can't see yourself in the military in the future and is something that you're passionate about then it isn't worth it."
Santana understood. The military was a big commitment, and not something that she could just decide to do on a whim. It was a huge decision. And in reality, she wasn't really thinking about it that much anymore.
There was a point in time that she considered it mostly because after her shoulder was injured, she didn't think that she had softball in her future.
Brittany was coming down the stairs now. "Babe do you still need help with your math?"
"You better get back." Brittany's mom said, smiling.
"Thank you, Aunty. For talking with me." Santana walked around and hugged her before heading back into the living room.
Brittany was sitting on the couch, looking at her phone. Santana made her way around and sat next to her girlfriend.
"You never told me, that you knew about West Point babe."
"I mean, I had a feeling. But I was waiting until you were ready to talk about it. You got a lot going on that's why, I didn't wanna stress you out." Brittany put her phone down and looked at Santana. "I just wanna tell you though that no matter what you choose to do, I'll support you 100%."
"Nah it wouldn't have stressed me out. And honestly after talking to your mom I'm not really, down. I guess. I'm preparing my highlight reel to send out. Hopefully I can get some good clips during states. If I even play."
"You gotta stop doing that, San. You're gonna play. You getting field time tomorrow, let's just see how that goes before we jump to any conclusions okay?"
Brittany grabbed Santana's math textbook off the coffee table. "Now let's finish this math so we can get to bed."
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School the next day dragged on as usual. The team's mindset was already in state's mode and that was their main focus.
Santana was excited to finally get back on the field but she knew she would do things differently this time. She wanted this so bad.
Once the girls finished school, they walked over to the field together as usual. The team was hyped because Santana was finally getting back on the field. They changed, and started to do their warm up laps. Coach Sue showed up right as the last person finished and a couple of the girls ran to her truck to get the bucket of softballs from the back.
"Santana. Come over here real quick." Coach Sue was standing in the dug out with Holly. Santana ran over and stood in front of them. "How you feeling about your shoulder?"
"Good honestly." She moved her arm in a windmill motion.
"I'm not too sure I'm ready to put you back at catcher just yet. So I might make some adjustments. Starting with Brittany staying at catcher."
Santana turned towards the field where everyone was warming up. Brittany was throwing with Rachel, completely oblivious to the convo she was having. She knew how excited Britt was to get back to playing center so she knew that she was going to be bummed about this decision.
"Today, I want to see how you do at 1st. I'm gonna put Kalei in left and moving Angel to center." Santana nodded. "Okay. Go warm up."
Kama was waiting for her so they could warm up together. "You good, cap?"
"Yeah, Coach was just making sure that I was good to throw today." She smiled.
Kama threw the ball to her and it hit the pocket of her glove. It was always her favorite sound.
She threw it back and it felt good.
After about ten more minutes, Coach Sue called everyone in and talked to the team about the changes she was planning on making. Everyone agreed, which is what usually happened because they all understood that Coach Sue made decisions based on what she thought was best for the team. Coach let them out for a water break, and Brittany made her way over to Santana.
"You okay babe? How's the shoulder?" Brittany grabbed one of the water bottles next to the jug and took a sip.
"It's good. I'm sorry about you having to stay at catcher.." Santana genuinely felt bad.
"Don't worry about it babe. It's good I promise."
It was time for fielding and Santana had some trouble finding her footing at first base. It had been a while since she played any position other than catcher or pitcher, so she wasn't too hard on herself. But the team could tell that she was having a hard time.
Kalei pulled Santana on the side with Wehi so that they could go over some things while the rest of the team started batting practice.
"Don't worry San, knowing you by tomorrow you gonna be better than I was at 1st. Guarans."
"Nah don't say that Kalei. I don't think I could be better than you." Santana laughed. "But thank you. For helping me out like this. I don't want you to think that I stole your position from you."
They talked for a few more minutes and Kalei reassured Santana that she wasn't mad. They all knew that it was for the best of the team.
Santana was always blown away when they would say things like that. Yeah, the team had been good for years. But at the beginning it was rough. Everyone was constantly fighting. No one worked together. They were always too busy thinking of themselves and it got the team nowhere. Now? There was more team work than ever.
Holly was waiting for Santana after practice. Brittany took her bags and headed to the truck while Santana walked over to Holly's golf cart.
"So how was it?"
"Super good. Maybe a little sore but nothing like before." Holly was searching through her bag for something, and that's when she pulled out a shoulder brace.
"I know I said no more of these things. But this is just for when you're at home so you can fully rest your shoulder now that you're back at practice. That way it can continue healing and you can keep practicing."
For the next few minutes, Holly showed Santana how to put it on. Brittany walked over, and patiently waited on the side for her girlfriend.
"I'm sure if you need help, that one over there is gonna help you. Now get home, it's getting late." And with that, Holly jumped onto her golf cart and headed back towards the school.
Brittany held her hand out, and Santana interlocked her fingers with hers.
"Feeling good?"
"Top notch, babe. I'll probably just shower when we get home and then put the tiger balm on before the brace. Holly said it's to just help me continue healing."
"Sounds good."
Santana climbed into the drivers seat as her girlfriend walked around to the passengers side and got in.
"I've got a good feeling about states, babe." Santana was starting the truck now. "You down for some ice cream?"
Brittany turned to see her girlfriend smiling from ear to ear.
"Yeah. I'd love that."
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AN: For all of you who have been and are still following this story I just wanna take a moment to thank you. This fic should be coming to an end soon, there's not much left after the State Tournament. Thank you for all the love, comments, follows, etc. And thanks for sticking it out with me :)