This Cheerleader's Trouble (And she's all mine) | Santana Lopez

2

A/N: Who's here?

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If Kingston Prep's staircase wasn't intimidating, the inside of the school definitely was. In the perfect city fashion, it was placed smack dab on the edge of Queens, in the only spot they could find a place for it. If only that place wasn't blocks away from their apartment. Then maybe she'd have some privacy after school before Elijah returned from work to sort herself out.

She wasn't used to the present father role in her life being filled.

"Mads, bud!"

Madison's lead jerked out of the lines on her page. She felt that visible rope around her neck tighten at the sight of the imperfect letters. Her hands raised and her pencil fell from between her fingers, shakily wiping the tears from under her eyes.

"Are you home?" She heard Elijah call through their apartment.

She debated on speaking up. If she focused enough on her music, maybe he'd drift back off to work and quit playing make believe with her. Her mother died, her father's in jail, her oldest cousin's her mother, her other cousin's her aunt, and this guy's her dad? This guy's her father.

Madison suddenly wished she never went searching for her birth family. Then she couldn't be stuck here in Queens wondering if the voices in her head would ever stop.

Footsteps grew closer as her fingers caressed the top of the page. Madison's lips tugged downward at the sight of the name she's written too many times, before choosing to close her notebook all together.

A letter wouldn't mean anything. Madison was scared to text and call. Santana would surely toss her letter out the second it came through the post for thinking she could get away with such a thing.

Madison turned her head as the door pushed further open. She resisted the urge to snap at Elijah for entering her bedroom without given permission. He didn't get. She didn't know if he'd ever get it.

"Hey!" Elijah smiled at the sight of her. "You want to go out for dinner tonight? I'm not feeling like cooking, and we haven't tried anywhere in the city yet."

Madison shrank back into her chair and shook her head. She didn't want to go out in the city. It was loud and scary. There were people on the streets that tried to talk to her about Jesus not being real and Mixtapes they made in their basement.

Elijah chuckled. He looked around the bedroom and crossed to sit near her on the bed.

"You need to get out of this house." He insisted. "it's healthy for you."

"I did." Madison mumbled.

"School isn't optional." Elijah shrugged. "Let's go get out for a little while and explore, you and i!"

Madison shook her head again and touched Cosmo as he walked by to see Elijah. Her heart squeezed tightly until pain rose in her chest. Where was Balto when she needed him?

"Do you like Chinese? Pizza?" Her father asked, ruffling Cosmo's hair. "We can go try something new. Oh! I know. We'll go to town square and get Canes! They're a great--"

Madison stared down at the floor with her hands over her headphones. Her heart raced in her chest. Last time Elijah made her go to time square for school shopping and she broke down in the middle of Target. People wouldn't stop staring at her and Balto was gone.

Usually, Quinn would hug her tight if she was hit with a panic attack. And though she wanted to hate her guts for lying to her, she really could have used a hug from her cousin . . . her aunt.