Hello again, time for a new chapter. I decided to be nice and not wait until Friday like I had originally planned. Enjoy.


Mike woke up early that Saturday morning excited for his date later today. He had wanted to see that movie 'Secretariat' for a while now and Tina finally agreed to see it with him. It's not that he minded but Mike could only go to the show with him mom so many times before people started to talk. He cleaned himself up and went downstairs into the kitchen where his mother was currently making breakfast.

"Hello, you're up early." Mrs. Chang greeted her son.

"Morning. That smells really good." Mike replied looking over his mother's shoulder to see what she was cooking; pancakes with eggs, bacon, and grits.

"Go sit down, breakfast will be ready soon." Mrs. Chang said shooing him away from her. Mike smiled and went to go find his father. Walking into the living room Mike found his father sitting on the couch sipping a cup of coffee and watching the news.

"Morning." Mike said sitting next to his dad.

"Morning."

They sat in silence for a moment both watching a news story about a mugging, at which his dad shook his head.

"What is this world coming to?"

"Don't know. I guess people are desperate." Mike replied while shrugging.

"Yeah, so what are you up to today?" Mr. Chang asked turning to face Mike.

"I've got a date with Tina."

"Is that so? Where to?"

"We're going to the movies. I want to see that movie Secretariat" Mike replied.

"That one with the race horse?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it seems interesting. Don't do anything that'll get you into trouble." Mr. Chang said with a smirk.

Mike blinked, "What in the world would we be doing in the movie theater?"

Mr. Chang laughed, "You'd be surprised by what goes on in theaters."

Mike shook his head at his dad's antics. Before he could contribute further to this weird conversation his mother stuck her head into the doorway, "Breakfast is ready you two."

"Thank goodness." Mike mumbled quickly getting up and walking away from his laughing father.

Breakfast was an interesting affair as Mike filled his parents in on the happenings of his week. They both thoroughly enjoyed listening to Mike's stories of the drama that went on in the glee club; it was like their own real life soap opera. Of course he left more private things out; like Santana being suicidal or various things about people's sexual history.

"I think I've made a friend." Mike announced suddenly which caught his parent's attention.

"Oh? That's good; you need a friend after Matt moved." Mr. Chang said happily.

"Who is it?" Mrs. Chang asked.

"Santana."

"Who?" Mr. Chang asked

"The Hispanic girl I told you about. She's a cheerleader." Mike clarified.

"That's good to hear. I was a bit worried with you only hanging out with Tina. Having a girlfriend is nice but you need other people to hang out with." Mrs. Chang said.

Breakfast was finished and Mike helped his mother clean the kitchen afterwards. After they finished Mike noticed it was time for him to get ready for his date with Tina. They had decided to go out in the early afternoon because Tina had to go to her cousin's party later that same day. Mike had just grabbed his wallet and keys and headed downstairs when his mother stopped him.

"Just a minute Mike, I need you to drop me off at your grandmother's house."

"Okay, what's going on at grandma's?" Mike asked.

"Your grandfather just got back from the hospital. You know he had his knee surgery not too long ago; I want to check and make sure everything is okay. I would've taken you father's car but he just got called in." Mrs. Chang explained.

"It's fine mom. Grandma's is on the way anyways, I'll have to pick up Tina first if you don't mind." Mike said. Internally he sighed; Tina was not going to be happy with his mom tagging along on yet another date.

Mike watched as his mother walked off to get everything she would need for her visit and decided to give Tina a heads up.

"Hello?" Tina answered.

"Hey, I just wanted to let you know my mom wants me to drop her off at my grandmother's before we head to the show." Mike informed her nervous of her reaction.

Tina sighed, "If my step-dad hadn't taken my car to get the brakes fixed I would've so picked you up instead."

"I'm sorry but hey, at least she's not coming on the date with us this time." Mike said optimistically.

"But she's still going to be there glaring at me. I was just hoping for one date where she wasn't there at all." Tina whined.

"It'll be okay." Mike said almost exasperated. He was tired of having the same argument over and over with Tina.

"I don't see why she can't just get her own car and drive wherever she wants whenever she wants." Tina continued.

"Tina, we're technically using her car. Remember she let me drive it because she and my dad work at the same hospital. It was more practical to just carpool to work." Mike explained resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Fine, whatever. Call me when you're outside my house." Tina said before hanging up. Mike put up his phone and sighed, this date wasn't starting off on very good legs. Hopefully it would get better.

"Ready?" Mrs. Chang asked walking over to where Mike stood.

"Yeah, let's go."

They both got in the car and Mike made his way over to Tina's house. It wasn't long before Tina was picked up and they made their way to Mike's grandmother's house. The car ride there was quiet and tense. Mike knew that his mom didn't really like Tina and the same could be said for his girlfriend but Mike didn't really know what to do about it. He had tried to fill the silence with the radio but it only caused his mom and Tina to argue about what stations to play. Tina wanted to listen to music from the more mainstream radio stations but his mom wanted to listen to smooth jazz, in the end the radio was turned off. Finally they made it to his grandmother's house and mom left the car.

Tina climbed in the front seat, "At least she's gone now."

"You could try to be a bit nicer." Mike said quietly while pulling out of the driveway and continuing to the movie theater.

"I'm trying but every time I say anything she turns it into an argument. It's not my fault your mom doesn't like me." Tina grumbled before turning to look out the window angrily.

Making their way into the theater Mike paid for tickets and popcorn and let Tina pick out where they were going to sit. There weren't many people in the theater due to the time and that the movie had been out for a while but that didn't stop Tina from picking seats all the way in the back. Mike was thoroughly engrossed in the movie and hardly noticed the multiple times Tina would hold his hand or put her hand on his thigh. It wasn't until Mike heard Tina yawn that he realized that he was the only one enjoying the movie. He kind of felt bad but the movie was almost over and they would soon be out.

Exiting the theater Mike turned to Tina, "How did you like the movie?"

"It was okay. Movies like that are predictable because you know the underdog is going to win in the end." Tina replied.

"I guess so." Mike said. It was a bit disappointing that they were still having a hard time finding common interests but he really liked Tina and was willing to continue trying.

Mike drove Tina home letting her listen to her radio station of choice, not letting on that he didn't like this type of music; he was a country music kind of guy but Tina hated it. He cringed and griped the steering wheel tightly when a Ke$ha song came on and Tina decided to turn it up very loudly. Mercifully he finally reached Tina's house, by this time the music had put her in a much better mood and him in a much worse one. Tina kissed him goodbye and headed off to her front door, once making sure she was inside Mike quickly turned the radio from the crap blaring through his speakers onto something more soothing.

Mike made his way home and spent the rest of the evening watching his favorite French film 'Wasabi' after receiving a call from his mother informing him that his grandfather was doing fine and that she would be getting a ride home with his father. The movie had just finished by the time his parents came home with Mexican take out. It wasn't long after that Mike went to bed early, not wanting to answer questions about his disaster of a date.


Walking down the halls on Monday with Tina hanging off his arm, Mike wondered at how she could pretend that everything was going great between them to the rest of the world after that failure of a date. They made their way to their afternoon meeting of glee and right as they walked through the door Tina ran off to Mercedes and Kurt to gossip. Mike spotted Santana sitting in her usual seat away from everyone else and Mike took the empty seat next to her.

"So how was your weekend?" Santana asked as he sat down.

Mike sighed, "It was good."

Santana raised an eyebrow, "Really? Because the sigh before you said that sounded nothing like 'fine' to me."

"I went to the movies." Mike said.

"What did you see?" Santana asked suddenly interested in the conversation.

"I went to see Secretariat, with Tina."

"I saw that, surprisingly good movie." Santana responded.

"You liked it?" Mike asked completely surprised.

"Yeah, I take it Tina didn't?" Santana responded.

"She said it was predictable. I think she wasn't more interested because it wasn't one of those romantic comedies she likes." Mike said with a shrug.

Santana snorted, "Talk about predictable."

Mike laughed in agreement. Their conversation was interrupted by Tina who had taken her seat next to Mike and grabbed onto his arm possessively. Mike saw her glare at Santana who rolled her eyes and turned to face Mr. Shue who had just walked into the room and started today's meeting. They had spent the rest of the meeting trying to come up with a set list for sectionals.


Sitting in his quiet spot at the back of the library, Mike was happy to finally have some time to himself. All throughout glee and the rest of the school day Tina had chewed him out about being 'overly' friendly with Santana. Mike still didn't understand what the problem was; all he did was have a conversation with Santana about his weekend. People did that all the time with no ulterior motives in sight. Mike shook his head to clear his mind; he had way more important things to think about. Mike reached for his bookbag and pulled out a big, thick, black binder, it was his study material for the upcoming academic decathlon competition. The Brainiacs had a competition next weekend and Mike planned on winning this one and bringing another medal home.

Mike had been studying for about twenty minutes before he felt someone sit next to him. Looking over Mike was surprised to see that it was Santana. Before Mike could open his mouth and ask her what she was doing here and why she was out of Cheerio practice early, Santana reached over, grabbed a hold of his arm, and buried her face in his shoulder. Mike was at a lost on what to do as the amount of awkward increased tenfold by her actions.

Mike sat in silence for a few tense moments before he cleared his throat, "Umm… Santana… what…"

"Can I just stay like this for a moment?" She asked quietly.

"O-okay." Mike stuttered in reply. He turned back to his notes and tried to relax. After a few minutes Mike was so busy concentrating on his notes on economics that he had briefly forgotten that Santana was there. He was just turning the page when he heard the first sniffle. It was completely out of the blue and caught him by surprise to the point that Mike stopped what he was doing and looked over and saw that Santana was silently shaking with sobs.

Mike froze, how was he supposed to deal with a crying female? The awkwardness came back and Mike quickly scanned the room for help. Seeing no one Mike accepted that he would have to do something about it himself.

"Santana?" was all he was able to come up with.

Santana quickly turned away from him and wiped away her tears, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Why are you crying?"

Santana glanced at him, "No reason, it's stupid. I'll see you later." Santana grabbed her things and started to rise.

"No wait." Mike tried to stop her but Santana was gone and he was left alone completely confused about what was going on.


Mike lay awake in his bed staring up at his ceiling lost in thought about the various worries of his young life. Mike wondered if things between Tina and him would get better or if he would have to break it off, if the Brainiacs would make it to Nationals this year, and more pressing Mike wondered what was going on with Santana in the library. Looking over at his clock Mike saw that it was 12:30 and tried harder to fall asleep; around one he found himself drifting off into a restless sleep.


The next day Mike spends his morning classes anxious to get to lunch; he was determined to ask Santana what was going on with her yesterday. Normally he doesn't push for answers and wait for people to tell him things in their own time but Mike couldn't keep his mind from going to the worst possible scenarios and he needed answers before he went crazy.

The bell signaling the end of class had Mike quickly packing up his things and rushing out of the door to the cafeteria and his usual table; he silently nibbled on his sandwich and kept an eye out for Santana. When he spotted her making her way to the table Mike straightened in his seat mentally preparing for the upcoming confrontation. His eye furrowed in confusion when at the last moment Santana swerved and walked back out of the cafeteria. Mike was just about to follow her when Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes sat down at the table with him.

"Tina what are you doing here?" Mike asked. He was a little upset that his plans were sidetracked.

"You don't sound very happy to see me." Tina replied while frowning.

"Disappointed that you couldn't spend lunch with Santana?" Kurt asked suspiciously.

"It's not that, I'm just surprised. Don't you have class right now?" Mike asked his girlfriend.

"I've got a sub today, decided to skip." Tina shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh." Mike managed to say before turning back to his food. He just didn't understand how people could skip class, the thought of getting caught while skipping freaked him out too much to consider it.

"So did you guys hear the news?" Kurt asked, gossip mode in full swing.

"No what about?" Mercedes asked.

"Well I heard some cheerios talking and apparently Ms. Sylvester chewed out Santana yesterday for messing up a routine." Kurt gossiped to the other two. This bit of news caught Mike's attention and made him look up.

"From what I gathered it was really bad, like she ran out of the gym in tears kind of bad." Kurt continued.

Mike frowned, no wonder Santana held onto him for dear life and cried into his shoulder; that sounded horrible. What in the world went on during those cheerio practices?

"That's so sad." Mike muttered out. The others looked at him like he had just grown a third head.

"Excuse me? After all the stuff that she says to us on a regular basis, it's about time that karma came back to bite her in the ass." Mercedes huffed and the others nodded in agreement.

"But-" Mike started.

"Mike whose side are you on?" Tina asked angrily.

"I don't see why there has to be sides. How could she have possibly deserved to be brought to tears by a teacher?" Mike asked not seeing the logic to their logic.

"You may not understand but Santana bullies us on a regular basis. Some of the things she says are downright offensive, so don't expect us to feel sorry for her when she gets a taste of her own medicine." Kurt explained.

Mike just sighed, since when did two wrongs make a right? Did they really not see that Santana was being bullied herself? All the cheerios really, Sue was one of the biggest bullies at this school and the cheerios had to put up with her on a regular basis. Maybe Santana was just lashing out at the other glee club members because she was hurting too. Mike looked at the others who had continued to gossip and laugh about Santana's misfortune, he couldn't believe people could be so uncaring about others behind that person's back. It was no wonder why they always had some sort of drama going on with each other, Mike wasn't even sure most of the people in the club liked one another; it was like a bunch of cliques forced to be on the same team and work together.

Mike quickly finished his lunch and began to pack his things; he couldn't be around their hateful gossip anymore.

"Where are you going?" Tina asked.

"I've got to go study." Mike replied not really trying to hide his annoyance with the three of them. He let Tina give him a peck on the cheek before walking out of the cafeteria and to the library. Heading over to his spot Mike was surprised to see Santana sitting there, looking frustrated with whatever she was working on. Mike sat down next to her just as Santana threw down her pencil in frustration.

"Hey." He greeted. Santana looked at him briefly before latching onto his arm and resuming her position from yesterday.

It was silent for a few moments before Mike decided to speak, "I heard about Ms. Sylvester yelling at you yesterday."

Mike was completely unprepared for his comment to cause Santana to burst into tears. He swallowed before pulling Santana into a hug and letting her cry on his shoulder. It was a long time before the tears stopped but Mike kept holding her until Santana pulled out of the hug and wiped away her tears.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Mike asked hesitantly.

Santana stayed silent and Mike thought that she wasn't going to answer him, "I'm used to all the other demeaning things she says, like how if the pyramid fails at least the sandbags on my chest will break the other cheerios' fall or how I should just quit the team and go back across the border where I came from. I'm even used to her offering me a job cleaning her house or pretending that I'm illiterate and don't understand English. But when she called me out in front of the entire team, for one fucking missed step, and said that she knew that I was used to laying on my back and expecting guys to do all the work but in practice I have to actually put forth some effort and do the routine right. That's when I lost it."

Mike stared at her horrified at the things she was telling him. What type of teacher gets away with that?

"Did you tell your parents? She can't just get away with something like that?" Mike asked.

Santana laughed bitterly, "Do you think I'm the first cheerio that's ever happened to? Plenty of others have told their parents about the things that go on during practice but she gets away with it every time. What made it worse was that not one person was willing to stand up for me, hell most of them laughed."

"Santana, there you are." Brittany said interrupting their conversation.

Mike saw Santana's eyes harden and her defenses shoot up, "What? Shouldn't you be hanging out with suspenders McGee?"

Brittany stopped short surprised by Santana's coldness towards her. "I just, I haven't seen you all day and I was worried. I usually see you at lunch but you weren't there today."

"Look I'm fine. I was just working on my homework, forget about it." Santana sighed out before beginning to pack her things. Brittany stepped forward to stop Santana but she stepped out of Brittany's reach.

"Did I do something wrong?" Brittany asked sadly.

"What? No, no. Look, I've got to go." Santana said while shouldering her backpack. She left the two of them behind without looking back. Brittany and Mike sat in silence while he thought about what he just witnessed.

"I just don't get it. What did I do wrong?" Brittany asked him suddenly and Mike could only shrug.

"We were doing just fine until we went on that double date with Puck and Artie, now she's avoiding me. I miss hanging out with her and talking about the things that we used to." Brittany went on.

"Was this around the time you and Artie started dating?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, and I stopped giving her sweet lady kisses because I didn't want to cheat on Artie." Brittany explained which caused Mike's eyes to widen. Sweet lady kisses? Santana and Brittany made out? What was really going on between the two of them?

"Maybe she's just not used to you dating Artie. Santana just needs time to get used to it." Mike said scrambling for and explanation to help out Brittany.

"I guess so." Brittany said sadly before saying goodbye and leaving the library herself.

This was crazy, just when he figures something out about Santana something else comes along and shows how much he really doesn't know her. Santana and Brittany made out with each other and from the way Brittany spoke it sounded like they did it often. It was then that Mike remembered the two's standing deal with boys who took them out on dates. 'You buy us dinner and we make out in front of you.' From the sounds of it Brittany really liked those moments but the question is, did Santana? Mike just sat there and stared off into space and pondered this bit of information, there was no way he was going to be able to study now.


And that ends another chapter. Did you like it? Yes? No? Maybe? Tell me about it.