Backlog: Artie & Santana
Who: Artie & Santana
When: summer, 2008
Where: pool
What: the ending of a friendship
Santana stepped out of the women’s locker room, shielding her eyes from the sun. Her skin smelled of Coppertone SPF 30 because her abuela had been crazy and wouldn’t let her leave until she was sure she had sunblock on and was sporting her brand new one piece that made Santana feel like she was still in kindergarten. Lucky for Santana, Puck had taught her how to shoplift without getting caught and she’d managed to smuggle a skimpy bikini from Target. So as she slowly made her was over to the pool, the warm sun burned the bare skin of her stomach and she frowned. She should’ve put more sunblock on. If she got a sunburn there, the old woman would be pissed.
The pool was Artie’s most favourite place, ever. It was the one place he was free, he could move unencumbered and as fast as pretty much any other kids. Sure, he couldn’t really climb out and run around the pool and jump back in on a whim, but he could even dive into the pool from the sides and if his dad was there then he could go on the diving boards. This day though, his father wasn’t there, just his older sister, Shay. James, his younger brother, was at the people next door since he hadn’t wanted to come.
His wheelchair sat at the side of the pool out of the way, but in easy reach should he want it, a towel already draped over the back and seat since he was notorious for forgetting that sort of thing. A neon blue pool noodle floated on the top of the water as Artie tossed rings to the bottom of the pool, one scrawny but well tanned arm over it as he tossed them haphazardly around so he could retrieve them in a moment. Goggles covered his eyes and once they had all reached the bottom he let go and dove under without concern to collect them again.
The sudden splash startled Santana. She turned and saw Shay Abrams sitting next to the pool. The older girl smiled and waved at Santana and she offered her a small smile and lamely waved back. She looked at the pool just as Artie surfaced and bit back a sigh. They hadn’t really hung out since the first week of summer. Not that he hadn’t tried. She’d just been kind of busy.
Pinching her nostrils with her fingers, she jumped into the pool feet first, making a little splash. The water felt ice cold as it surrounded her. Her fingers let go and she pushed herself to the surface, gasping for air.
Normally at this time of morning, Artie had the pool mostly to himself. Sometimes there were a few mom’s with babies, but there were rarely kids his age around. Their mom worked in the mornings though so they couldn’t go anywhere except the pool. In the afternoons they had errands to run or other stuff to do usually. Therefore, when Artie surfaced and saw the dark head break the water, he wanted to go check it out. Making sure he had all his rings, he made sure the noodle was against his chest firmly, then began to paddle with his arms to see who it was. He could swim without it, but it made everyone mad when he didn’t have it or another float nearby. “Hi Santana!” he said brightly, pushing his goggles up onto his head. Awesome!
Santana offered him an awkward smile and ran her fingers through the water. “Hey...Artie, what’s up?” She asked slowly, glancing over her shoulder. Puck, Matt, Mike had said they might stop by the pool. So, she was kind of anxious.
“Just swimming,” he answered lightly. She knew how much he loved it and living in Lima, he only had a few months a year where he could so he did it nearly every day. “What about you?” Artie had assumed that when Santana had told him that she was busy that she had been in day camp or something and now it was over. He was going to camp too, for disabled kids, in a couple weeks. He went every summer for a week. “Busy summer, I guess?”
“Yeah, I guess,” she agreed noncommittally. She crossed her arms and looked at him for the first time in mover a month. “I’m supposed to be meeting some friends I guess. So, I’m still kind of busy. Did you go to camp?” She’d gone to day camp at the Y near her house. That’s how she’d started hanging out with Puck.
“Bible camp a couple weeks ago, yeah,” Artie nodded. That was no real surprise since his father was a pastor. “I go to wheelchair camp though in two weeks. I’m pretty excited I get to go horseback riding this year!” He had been wanting to do that for a while now, but his parents had never given permission. “What about you?” he instantly assumed that he would meet these friends and hang out too. Maybe they could all be friends?
Biting her lip, Santana glanced over her shoulder again. She really hoped the boys didn’t come and catch her talking to Artie. They didn’t hate him or anything, but they were’t exactly his friends either. “Um...Hector-er-my dad took my mom out of the country for a month or something. So, I’m stuck with my grandmother until she comes back. Kind of sucks.”
“That’s fun,” he replied. He liked her grandmother the few times he had met her. She liked to try to feed him Cuban sweets, which he never said no to. “I like your grandmother. She’s a good cook. Has she made empanadas yet?” Artie loved her empanadas.
“Not that grandmother. My dad’s mother. She’s not nice. She is loca. She makes me go to mass like three times a week. And she listens to weird music, like Spanish oldies. Oh and I’m not allowed to speak English in her house. It’s fucking awful,” she whispered. Swearing still felt weird on her tongue, but Puck made fun of her for being hesitant and she didn’t want to be compared to Quinn anymore.
Artie’s eyes grew wide at the swear word, “Santana!” he couldn’t believe she had said it! “You said the f-word!” Clearly. They had both heard it. She’d said it. He never had.
Getting defensive, and slightly afraid Shay had overheard them, Santana shrugged and frowned. “Yeah? So? Don’t be such a baby, Artie.”
“But...Santana...” Artie got quiet, making a face. “I like your bathing suit,” he said, changing the topic. How could he not notice it? He liked girls, even if they didn’t much like him (Santana liked him, but not like that he was pretty sure) and Santana definitely looked pretty in the suit. She looked pretty grown up. When had she gotten curves? He was still scrawny and small, but he had grown an inch. That was something.
Santana flipped her wild, curly hair over her shoulder, wondering if she should go and pull it back before her friends arrived. She hated her hair, but her abuela refused to straighten it. “Yeah? Thanks,” she said with a genuine smile as she looked down. Good, she’d made a good choice. Then again, this was Artie and what did he know? “Did you get any new video games?”
“Not yet,” Artie replied, “But I’m hoping to go to the store this weekend maybe and get Halo and maybe the new Zelda. Do you want to come over and play it? It’d be awesome!” Their video game marathons were pretty epic.
Ready to agree, Santana was just about nod and reply, but there was a loud cry before boys’ voices called out “canon ball!” and the pool was bombarded with people jumping in. She squealed and jumped back, spinning around as Puck swam up behind her.
“Hey, San, what’s up?” He asked as he swam over, his usual fauxhawk looked like a shark fin in the water.
“Hi, Puck,” she answered, smiling over at him.
Was PUCK one her friends?! What? He was probably the baddest guy in school or at least, the most popular. How was he friends with Santana? Sure, she was pretty and cool and stuff, but ...she was his friend. Except that she hadn’t been around a lot all summer. Quietly, Artie backed up, unsure what might happen. He didn’t think that Puck even knew who he was.
Puck swam up close to her and she completely forgot Artie was there until Puck nodded towards him. “Who’s the dweeb?” He asked. Santana bristled at the description. Puck knew who he was. She’d beaten him up more than once for calling Artie names back in grade school. Only now, she and Puck were kind of friends and, more over, she actually kind of liked him. Well, he wasn’t nearly as gross or annoying as she’d always thought anyway. So, she felt torn.
Feeling everyone else’s eyes on her, she steeled her insides. Artie was going to hate her for this. “No one,” she answered quickly, not looking at him. “No one that matters anyway. I don’t feel like swimming anymore. I want to go to the carnival before I have to go in. My abuela said if I’m late again, she’ll call your mom.” She swam to the side of the pool quickly and hauled herself out of it.She reached for her towel and started to dry herself off.
Puck looked at Artie for a long moment before signaling to the others to get out. “I don’t want that old lady calling my mom. She’s already pissed at me,” he called after Santana as he and his friends climbed out of the water. “Hey, I’ll call Quinn and see if she wants to meet us,” he said, grabbing Mike Chang’s phone.
“Hey, I’m only supposed to use that in emergencies,” Mike complained.
“Shut up, this is an emergency,” Puck said as he dialed the number.
Santana ignored them and pulled her shorts on. She knew Shay was watching her, but she kept her head down, feeling guilt gnaw at the pit of her stomach.
Artie felt like he had been sucker punched when Santana said he was no one. No one? He was her best friend! She was HIS best friend! No one?! Artie was too shocked to even reply as he was subsequently dismissed by everyone and then Santana climbed out of the pool to get dressed just...leaving him there. She NEVER left him. Not like that.
A long minute later, he swam to the side where his chair was, tossing the rings he still had on one arm and the noodle on the side of the pool before hauling himself out and then up into his chair. It was green with big frogs on the wheels. He loved that chair. It was pretty damn cool. Much cooler than the blue one he had for most of elementary school.
By the time he was situated though, they were all leaving and Artie took a few pushes forward, trying to catch up, but even he could see it was mostly futile. He couldn’t go to the carnival anyways. Not without one of his parents. Lower lip trembling, Artie took a deep breath and turned around, going back to gather his stuff up, “You ready to go, Shay?” he asked, voice surprisingly level. “I’m bored.” It was a good hour or so before he normally wanted to leave the pool.
Santana willed herself not to look back as they left. She didn’t want to see the look she knew was on Artie’s face. She’d seen it there everytime one of the other kids had made fun of his wheelchair when they were little. She never thought she’d make him look like that. She was kind of mad at herself. Even Puck could tell because he stopped picking at her when she’d glared in his direction. She kind of just wanted to go home and maybe call Artie and apologize like she always did when they had a fight. But she knew that she couldn’t. And that part sucked most of all.
When: summer, 2008
Where: pool
What: the ending of a friendship
Santana stepped out of the women’s locker room, shielding her eyes from the sun. Her skin smelled of Coppertone SPF 30 because her abuela had been crazy and wouldn’t let her leave until she was sure she had sunblock on and was sporting her brand new one piece that made Santana feel like she was still in kindergarten. Lucky for Santana, Puck had taught her how to shoplift without getting caught and she’d managed to smuggle a skimpy bikini from Target. So as she slowly made her was over to the pool, the warm sun burned the bare skin of her stomach and she frowned. She should’ve put more sunblock on. If she got a sunburn there, the old woman would be pissed.
The pool was Artie’s most favourite place, ever. It was the one place he was free, he could move unencumbered and as fast as pretty much any other kids. Sure, he couldn’t really climb out and run around the pool and jump back in on a whim, but he could even dive into the pool from the sides and if his dad was there then he could go on the diving boards. This day though, his father wasn’t there, just his older sister, Shay. James, his younger brother, was at the people next door since he hadn’t wanted to come.
His wheelchair sat at the side of the pool out of the way, but in easy reach should he want it, a towel already draped over the back and seat since he was notorious for forgetting that sort of thing. A neon blue pool noodle floated on the top of the water as Artie tossed rings to the bottom of the pool, one scrawny but well tanned arm over it as he tossed them haphazardly around so he could retrieve them in a moment. Goggles covered his eyes and once they had all reached the bottom he let go and dove under without concern to collect them again.
The sudden splash startled Santana. She turned and saw Shay Abrams sitting next to the pool. The older girl smiled and waved at Santana and she offered her a small smile and lamely waved back. She looked at the pool just as Artie surfaced and bit back a sigh. They hadn’t really hung out since the first week of summer. Not that he hadn’t tried. She’d just been kind of busy.
Pinching her nostrils with her fingers, she jumped into the pool feet first, making a little splash. The water felt ice cold as it surrounded her. Her fingers let go and she pushed herself to the surface, gasping for air.
Normally at this time of morning, Artie had the pool mostly to himself. Sometimes there were a few mom’s with babies, but there were rarely kids his age around. Their mom worked in the mornings though so they couldn’t go anywhere except the pool. In the afternoons they had errands to run or other stuff to do usually. Therefore, when Artie surfaced and saw the dark head break the water, he wanted to go check it out. Making sure he had all his rings, he made sure the noodle was against his chest firmly, then began to paddle with his arms to see who it was. He could swim without it, but it made everyone mad when he didn’t have it or another float nearby. “Hi Santana!” he said brightly, pushing his goggles up onto his head. Awesome!
Santana offered him an awkward smile and ran her fingers through the water. “Hey...Artie, what’s up?” She asked slowly, glancing over her shoulder. Puck, Matt, Mike had said they might stop by the pool. So, she was kind of anxious.
“Just swimming,” he answered lightly. She knew how much he loved it and living in Lima, he only had a few months a year where he could so he did it nearly every day. “What about you?” Artie had assumed that when Santana had told him that she was busy that she had been in day camp or something and now it was over. He was going to camp too, for disabled kids, in a couple weeks. He went every summer for a week. “Busy summer, I guess?”
“Yeah, I guess,” she agreed noncommittally. She crossed her arms and looked at him for the first time in mover a month. “I’m supposed to be meeting some friends I guess. So, I’m still kind of busy. Did you go to camp?” She’d gone to day camp at the Y near her house. That’s how she’d started hanging out with Puck.
“Bible camp a couple weeks ago, yeah,” Artie nodded. That was no real surprise since his father was a pastor. “I go to wheelchair camp though in two weeks. I’m pretty excited I get to go horseback riding this year!” He had been wanting to do that for a while now, but his parents had never given permission. “What about you?” he instantly assumed that he would meet these friends and hang out too. Maybe they could all be friends?
Biting her lip, Santana glanced over her shoulder again. She really hoped the boys didn’t come and catch her talking to Artie. They didn’t hate him or anything, but they were’t exactly his friends either. “Um...Hector-er-my dad took my mom out of the country for a month or something. So, I’m stuck with my grandmother until she comes back. Kind of sucks.”
“That’s fun,” he replied. He liked her grandmother the few times he had met her. She liked to try to feed him Cuban sweets, which he never said no to. “I like your grandmother. She’s a good cook. Has she made empanadas yet?” Artie loved her empanadas.
“Not that grandmother. My dad’s mother. She’s not nice. She is loca. She makes me go to mass like three times a week. And she listens to weird music, like Spanish oldies. Oh and I’m not allowed to speak English in her house. It’s fucking awful,” she whispered. Swearing still felt weird on her tongue, but Puck made fun of her for being hesitant and she didn’t want to be compared to Quinn anymore.
Artie’s eyes grew wide at the swear word, “Santana!” he couldn’t believe she had said it! “You said the f-word!” Clearly. They had both heard it. She’d said it. He never had.
Getting defensive, and slightly afraid Shay had overheard them, Santana shrugged and frowned. “Yeah? So? Don’t be such a baby, Artie.”
“But...Santana...” Artie got quiet, making a face. “I like your bathing suit,” he said, changing the topic. How could he not notice it? He liked girls, even if they didn’t much like him (Santana liked him, but not like that he was pretty sure) and Santana definitely looked pretty in the suit. She looked pretty grown up. When had she gotten curves? He was still scrawny and small, but he had grown an inch. That was something.
Santana flipped her wild, curly hair over her shoulder, wondering if she should go and pull it back before her friends arrived. She hated her hair, but her abuela refused to straighten it. “Yeah? Thanks,” she said with a genuine smile as she looked down. Good, she’d made a good choice. Then again, this was Artie and what did he know? “Did you get any new video games?”
“Not yet,” Artie replied, “But I’m hoping to go to the store this weekend maybe and get Halo and maybe the new Zelda. Do you want to come over and play it? It’d be awesome!” Their video game marathons were pretty epic.
Ready to agree, Santana was just about nod and reply, but there was a loud cry before boys’ voices called out “canon ball!” and the pool was bombarded with people jumping in. She squealed and jumped back, spinning around as Puck swam up behind her.
“Hey, San, what’s up?” He asked as he swam over, his usual fauxhawk looked like a shark fin in the water.
“Hi, Puck,” she answered, smiling over at him.
Was PUCK one her friends?! What? He was probably the baddest guy in school or at least, the most popular. How was he friends with Santana? Sure, she was pretty and cool and stuff, but ...she was his friend. Except that she hadn’t been around a lot all summer. Quietly, Artie backed up, unsure what might happen. He didn’t think that Puck even knew who he was.
Puck swam up close to her and she completely forgot Artie was there until Puck nodded towards him. “Who’s the dweeb?” He asked. Santana bristled at the description. Puck knew who he was. She’d beaten him up more than once for calling Artie names back in grade school. Only now, she and Puck were kind of friends and, more over, she actually kind of liked him. Well, he wasn’t nearly as gross or annoying as she’d always thought anyway. So, she felt torn.
Feeling everyone else’s eyes on her, she steeled her insides. Artie was going to hate her for this. “No one,” she answered quickly, not looking at him. “No one that matters anyway. I don’t feel like swimming anymore. I want to go to the carnival before I have to go in. My abuela said if I’m late again, she’ll call your mom.” She swam to the side of the pool quickly and hauled herself out of it.She reached for her towel and started to dry herself off.
Puck looked at Artie for a long moment before signaling to the others to get out. “I don’t want that old lady calling my mom. She’s already pissed at me,” he called after Santana as he and his friends climbed out of the water. “Hey, I’ll call Quinn and see if she wants to meet us,” he said, grabbing Mike Chang’s phone.
“Hey, I’m only supposed to use that in emergencies,” Mike complained.
“Shut up, this is an emergency,” Puck said as he dialed the number.
Santana ignored them and pulled her shorts on. She knew Shay was watching her, but she kept her head down, feeling guilt gnaw at the pit of her stomach.
Artie felt like he had been sucker punched when Santana said he was no one. No one? He was her best friend! She was HIS best friend! No one?! Artie was too shocked to even reply as he was subsequently dismissed by everyone and then Santana climbed out of the pool to get dressed just...leaving him there. She NEVER left him. Not like that.
A long minute later, he swam to the side where his chair was, tossing the rings he still had on one arm and the noodle on the side of the pool before hauling himself out and then up into his chair. It was green with big frogs on the wheels. He loved that chair. It was pretty damn cool. Much cooler than the blue one he had for most of elementary school.
By the time he was situated though, they were all leaving and Artie took a few pushes forward, trying to catch up, but even he could see it was mostly futile. He couldn’t go to the carnival anyways. Not without one of his parents. Lower lip trembling, Artie took a deep breath and turned around, going back to gather his stuff up, “You ready to go, Shay?” he asked, voice surprisingly level. “I’m bored.” It was a good hour or so before he normally wanted to leave the pool.
Santana willed herself not to look back as they left. She didn’t want to see the look she knew was on Artie’s face. She’d seen it there everytime one of the other kids had made fun of his wheelchair when they were little. She never thought she’d make him look like that. She was kind of mad at herself. Even Puck could tell because he stopped picking at her when she’d glared in his direction. She kind of just wanted to go home and maybe call Artie and apologize like she always did when they had a fight. But she knew that she couldn’t. And that part sucked most of all.