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 40th cycle. Now cycle 41!

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** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 41 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days, starting in cycle 41!

This is a shift day [see above]. There will be another upload this afternoon: The Troubletone Incursion, chapter 1.

"Broken Down and Out"
15yo Mike/Tina
Chang Squared #18 (following 'Tender Love & Care')

He was trying to reach her, knowing she'd be out of Cheerios practice by now, but she wasn't answering so he'd gone looking for her. As he neared the locker room, he could hear girls shouting and then a few of the Cheerios had skittered out into the hall, stomped off past him. On their way, one of them had seen him and shook her head.

"Your girlfriend's lost it!" she threw at him before heading off. He blinked, confused, then got his senses back and went into the locker room. The moment the girls had seen him they'd screeched, even though no one was uncovered. He paid no mind to them, not when he saw her, standing at her locker. Her hair was hanging loose, though it still held some of the shape of the ponytail… It looked odd, the uniform and no ponytail… But he put that aside, seeing how she was pulling at things in her locker, letting them fall where they would.

"Tina, what's wrong?" he asked, moving up to her, but she just shook her head.

"Let me do this!" she yelled, and he wasn't even sure she knew it was him standing there.

"Tina…" he moved to touch her shoulder, but right then four Cheerios had grabbed and pulled until they could toss him out into the hall, to a chorus of foul names. He just barely managed not to fall on the ground, picked himself back up, startled by… all of it.

So he waited, barely patient, until she would come out. He got several stink eyes from other girls as he waited, but finally she came… in her gym clothes, carrying two bags, one with personal items, the other with all her Cheerios uniform items. She saw him, blinked in surprise… "Mike…"

"What's going on?" he asked, and her face started a steady decline.

"She kicked me out…" her voice was stunned.

"What? From the Cheerios?" he asked, and she nodded, promptly breaking into tears. He moved up to hold her and she dropped the bags, wrapping her arms around him. "But… did she say why?"

"Apparently she does that, looks at the list and randomly picks someone off. Guess I wasn't valuable enough to be spared that…"

"You're pretty valuable… solid gold," he promised, rubbing her back.

"I didn't even have anything else to put on except my gym clothes… She wants the uniform back, not supposed to wear it anymore…" she sniffled.

"I'll take you home to change."

"No, but we've got class…" she shook her head, sniffling back.

"It's one period and then we have lunch, it's fine. Besides, I should probably clear out of here for a bit," he looked around the hall.

"Why?" she looked to him.

"They might think I'm a peeping Tom," he explained, shocking her out of silence, blinking.

"What?"

"I'll explain in the car."

The drive, once he'd told her what she'd missed, was silent. Her uniform had been dropped off on the way out, which made the whole thing very final. Once they got to her house though, she had to pick clothes. She frowned. "I haven't chosen what to wear to school in so long… Kind of got used to putting on the same thing." After a moment, she shrugged and pulled out a dress. She turned to Mike and he wordlessly turned and faced the wall while she got dressed.

"It's going to be okay, I mean… I'm not on the football team anymore, and you're not a Cheerio anymore… We'll have more time together."

"I know…" she sighed. "And that's good."

"But…" he guessed.

"I didn't want to be off the Cheerios, there was nothing…" she paused, not wanting to say anything that would call back to his injury, which had inevitably led to his decision not to rejoin the team once he had recovered. Still he understood.

"What are you going to do?"

"I… I don't know," she responded after a moment.

"What do you want to do?" he asked, and this time her response was immediate.

"I don't know!" her voice rose, only for that, then it lowered again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay, I… Are you still getting dressed?" he had to ask.

"No, I'm done…" she realized she hadn't told him. He turned, finding her barefoot, in her dress… She looked so sad, confused… He moved up to her and she looked to him.

"Look, Coach Sylvester, she's not exactly known to be fair. She kicked you out, you said so yourself, randomly."

"How is that better? Nothing I did mattered enough for her to look at me as just one interchangeable pawn in her set of ponytails! I don't matter to her, nothing I did… She was starting to hyperventilate and he hugged her.

"She doesn't know a thing, okay? I saw you, we all did. And maybe at first I didn't picture you as a Cheerio, but as soon as I saw you out there…" he shook his head with a loving smile and she could only look back into his eyes. "You were right where you belonged." She managed to smile. "This can be a good thing."

"I know…" she admitted. "Just doesn't feel like it right now," she bowed her head for a moment, took a breath. "I guess I should finish getting ready," she looked to herself, then thought for a moment. "Can you do something?"

"Name it," he nodded.

"Still got some other Cheerio clothes and all that. She wants them, too…" she frowned.

"I'll take care of those," he promised, moving into action while she finished getting redressed. Socks, shoes, necklace…

She brushed out her hair, the one good thing in this… no more ponytail pulling her hair so tight… She thought about putting highlights from time to time, any color, but naturally this was out of the question for Coach Sylvester, so…

"Pretty sure I got all of it," she heard Mike say as she finished touching up her make-up. She turned to face him, looked at the bag in his hand for a moment but then let out a breath and smiled to him.

"How do I look?" she held out her arms. He put the bag down and came up to her.

"You can ask me that question a million times, you'll always get 'beautiful' from me," he vowed and she beamed, kissing him.

"Sounds good," she took a breath. "Then we better get going… Brand new day."

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!