Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 70th cycle. Now cycle 71!

"Someday We'll Reunite"
(Older) Mike/Tina, 12yo Lily Chang
Chang Squared series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

She knew they had brought her with them so that she could see her grandparents, but Lily still hated that they got to go to the reunion and she had to stay behind. She might as well have stayed back home in Los Angeles, which was what she'd told them, along with pointing out that she was twelve years old and did not need to be watched like a kid with a babysitter. She was spending the night at her father's parents' house, and she did love seeing her grandmother and grandfather, but she would have given anything to see McKinley High and all her parents' friends.

Then a miracle had happened, or near enough to that. Her grandmother had somehow managed to convince her parents to let her go, only for a few minutes. She would get to say hello to everyone, see what all the fuss was about, and then she'd go right back home with her grandparents. This was more than acceptable to her, and when her mother had said yes, she'd hugged her as well as her grandmother. Then she'd run to get changed.

She didn't know exactly how much time they would allow her before she had to turn back and leave with her grandparents. She hoped that they would somehow get wrapped up in everything, maybe run into people they knew, start talking, and before they'd know it, they would completely forget that they were supposed to take her home, and she would be able to stay. She had never seen her parents' school, and for all the stories she'd been told about them, this place felt like one of if not the most important in relation to how they'd come to be who they were now. It was only fair then that she got to see it for herself.

Her parents may have intended for her to stay with her grandparents and see what she wanted to see, but they couldn't help but take her with them, introducing her to those who'd never met her, or letting those who hadn't seen her in a while discover the wonderful girl she was growing up to be, as her mother would often tell her. Lily was almost certain she'd also been taken on this parade as a way of 'paying her back' for working her grandmother into letting her go.

At last though, she had managed to spring free, and she didn't waste any time. Her grandparents were talking with what she guessed were teachers, and they didn't look like they wondered where she'd gone. So she snuck out of the gym.

It didn't take her long to find the choir room. The door was locked, so she could only see it from out of a very slim window, but she swore she could picture it, picture them, her mother and father in that room, only a few years older than she…

"What are you doing out here?" a woman's voice suddenly asked, and Lily gasped, turning around.

She didn't know what gave it away, if it was the short blonde hair, the sneer, or the track suit, but she knew exactly who this was.

"Sorry, Coach, I…"

"As far as I know, you're a little too young to be one of mine, so who are you exactly?"

"Lily… Lily Chang, Coach Sylvester," she nodded. The tall woman took a step forward, still observing the young girl standing before her, and Lily wondered what would happen if she ran. She wasn't her student, so she couldn't do anything, right?

But then, she smiled.

"Yes, I guess you would be. Anyone ever tell you how much you look like your father?"

"All the time," Lily nodded.

"Sounds about right."

She knew she had no reason to be afraid, not really. She knew the place Sue Sylvester had occupied in her parents' lives in the end, but it was hard not to see her and remember what she had been to them before. This was the woman who'd kicked her mother off the Cheerios for no reason at all and then, when her mother had fought to get her spot back, had paid her back by making her head cheerleader over her Aunt Quinn, which had put her in a tight spot and made her miserable. That had been the Coach's intention of course, waiting for her mother to quit the squad and never try to come back again.

But her mother hadn't quit. In fact, she'd remained head of the Cheerios until she'd graduated from McKinley. Today, the way she heard it, Coach Sylvester would berate her newest head Cheerios by telling them they wished they were half as good a leader as Tina Cohen-Chang. Her mother had earned the Coach's respect, if not all at once then slowly, bit by bit eating away at her determination to see her leave until she never wanted to see her go. Her mother had said it was still one of the greatest victories in her life, not to mention that it had taught her many things she had passed on to Lily herself, to not let herself get pushed around, to never give up.

"So what are you doing out here, Junior Chang?"

"I just… I just wanted to see around the school. I wanted to see the choir room, and the trophies…"

"Trophies, well…" Sue came up and led her down the hall by the shoulder. "This is the one you'll want to see," she pointed into the case.

"Glee Club?" Lily asked, and the Coach stared down at her. "Right, not Glee Club."

"Your mother helped win us that one," Sue pointed again, and Lily stared at the massive trophy put on display.

"It's huge!" Lily declared.

"It is," Sue agreed. "That means we were the best. What about you, are you planning on being a cheerleader like your mother?"

"I don't know," Lily shrugged.

"Ah, right, of course… Glee Club."

"I don't know, maybe," she kept on shrugging.

"Well, you're young, you've got time to make up your mind." At this, Lily smiled.

"I know."

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!