Mike Chang looked at his watch again. 5:40. It was so late there's no chance she's showing up for this practice. Good, he wouldn't have to face her again. Another twenty minutes and it's on to the next thing on his list. He watches Finn mangle the steps and from the corner of his eye sees a flash of light. Someone was walking into the auditorium. Damn, it was her.
"You're late." Schuester said. Thank you, Captain Obvious. None of the students in the auditorium could possibly be expected to know how to tell time.
She mumbles something about her alarm clock. Talk about an obvious lie. And she looks terrible too, like walking down the aisle to the stage took as much energy as running a marathon. Schuester tells Mike to help her catch up. He takes one step towards her but her eyes flash "Stay away from me!" He stops. She glues her eyes to Finn's feet.
When Finn is done it's her turn. She tries, she fails, she falls. All eyes turn to Schuester to see how he reacts. He's angry and says she's not putting in enough effort, as if he didn't see how much effort what she just did took. Mike offers her his hand and she speaks to him, the first time she's spoken to him since he ignored her text 4 months ago. The text that said 'I'm late'. Only he can hear her say "Don't you ever, ever, touch me again!" and he pulls back his hand, surprised it's still on the end of his arm.
She looks around like she expects help but there's none coming. She manages to scramble awkwardly to her feet and says she's sick. Santana says she's been overeating. She says she's going to throw up. Santana says that's proof. Schuester says she needs to work hard if she's going to be in the club. She looks at each of them again. Her eyes rest on Mike for 3 seconds, 3 centuries. Then she turns and walks out. She never set foot in McKinley High School again.
They're sitting in the hotel room at Nationals last year. Just him, her and a couple bottles of wine. They're laughing, talking and drinking. His long Asian leg is draped over her short African-American leg. He told her she was beautiful and he loved her. She believed him because nobody ever said that to her before. He told her he wanted to be with her, she believed him because she wanted to believe him. He told her everything would be okay if they had sex. She didn't believe him at all but she did it anyway, maybe he really meant it. Then, as they lay in bed, sweaty and naked, he told her he felt bad about cheating on Tina. She asked why he hadn't said that a half-hour ago. He said this would be their little secret, nobody had to know. She said she knew it would end this way. She wraps herself in a blanket, picks up her clothes from the floor, and walks to the bathroom. She turns and looks at him for 3 seconds, 3 centuries. When she comes out of the bathroom he's gone.
The thing Mike noticed was that the little girl and the man she called daddy didn't match. The girl was dark, with long glossy black hair that fell in a thick braid down her back. When she turned her head Mike saw her eyes were almond shaped but other than the eyes and the hair she looked like a light-skinned black person, like the product of a black person and an Asian person. The dad, on the other hand, was definitely white. He had sandy blonde hair and resembled that homeless kid that used to play football. She was calling him daddy and he was buying her ice-cream.
Mike watched from his park bench as he carried her towards to a picnic blanket spread under a tree. The man didn't mind that ice-cream was dripping on his shirt. The girl called mama and the black woman sitting on the blanket laughed, that musical laugh that was one of the first things he had noticed about her, five years ago. Then she called out the little girl's name. Rain, her name was Rain. The man put her down and she ran to her mother's outstretched arms.
The man sat down on the blanket next to the woman and put his arm around her, she leaned her head against his shoulder, the little girl sat on his lap. Mike moved closer, until he was standing near them. The man and Rain were singing to her, something he'd never heard before.
It was nonsense but they all seemed to like it. The man and woman bumped their heads when they both leaned over to kiss Rain at the same time. Then they laughed like it was hysterically funny and they kissed each other. Mike ducked behind a tree when the man stood up. He held out his hand to help her as she rose gracefully to her feet.
She was pregnant, very pregnant. And happy, very happy.
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