In With the A Crowd

Chapter 11
For the next few weeks, Sydney and Michael continued their subtly flirtatious routine. When Sydney would come up to his desk to speak with him before English class, Michael would make it a point to touch her arm gently as they spoke. They would stop to chat in the hallways between classes at least a few times per day, every time Sydney stopped by her locker, which was conveniently located close by Michael’s room. Also, during newspaper meetings, Michael would lean over Sydney as she worked, hovering much closer than he would if she was just an ordinary student.

All of these tiny factors combined did not seem to tip anyone off to anything unusual between them. Or, even if it did, Sydney did not get wind of it. In order to really kick things up, Sydney thought of a more interesting twist in their plan. Since she was still spending some of her study halls with Michael, she decided it would be an interesting experiment if she smeared his lipstick a bit while leaving his classroom to give the impression of something less than G-rated going on during that study hall. This final twist worked like a charm, especially when she was casually fixing her lipstick and caught the eye of Susan, the queen bee, so to speak.

It was just a few days after that incident that Susan approached Sydney after gym class in the locker rooms while they were changing. Sydney could see Susan and two of her loyal followers hovering annoyingly close and hoped they were about to speak to her, so she casually glanced over at them every so often, trying to catch their eye. Finally she did and Susan took a step forward. “It’s Sydney, right? You’re in my English class…”

“Yeah,” Sydney said as casually as possible.

“Well I – we were just wondering…is there something going on between you and Mr. Vaughn?” Susan asked carefully.

While fighting the urge to jump up and do a back flip that her plan was finally working, Sydney managed to grow a secretive smile across her face as she said, “What do you mean?” in the most innocent voice she could muster.

“Well you’ve been flirting with him,” Susan laughed loudly. Then she lowered her voice. “I mean, we all do it but…well, he seems to be flirting back,” Susan said in an utterly bewildered tone. Her tone made her thoughts fairly obvious. She was wondering why Mr. Vaughn was attracted to the formally geeky Sydney instead of her always chic self.

More than anything Sydney wanted to rub the truth into Susan’s face. She wanted to say that yes of course she and Michael were together – dating – and he thought she was beautiful. Sadly, this was not part of the plan so she had to play along. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sydney said with a slight giggle, making it clear she was hiding something. Then, she quickly reached for her backpack and excused herself politely, leaving Susan practically dying of curiosity behind her.

Rushing back to her locker from gym class, Sydney was practically soaring. More than anything she wanted to float down the hallway shouting, “IT WORKED!” but she could not. She needed to play it cool – very cool. After all she was so close. Somehow, during her evil plotting she got it into her head that getting in with the A crowd would be her ticket to the killer story her editor was harping on her for. All she needed was just a few days in their secret club and then BAM! It would hit her. Or so she thought, anyway.

Unable to resist telling Michael her good news, she ripped a piece of notebook paper from her backpack and quickly scribbled a few words onto it. Then, she folded it in half and sauntered into Michael’s classroom, which was already filling with students for his fourth period class. “Mr. Vaughn I just wanted to give you that article I promised you – you know, for the paper,” she said.

Michael looked up to her with an utterly lost and confused look on his face. “Um, what?” he asked quietly.

“Here you go,” she pressed the paper into his hand. “I’ve got to get to class!” she said before quickly rushing away.

Still lost as to what Sydney was up to, Michael unfolded the paper and read in her scribbled handwriting, It worked!. Michael could not help but laugh softly at this as he slipped the paper into his top desk drawer.

~*~

The next day, the whole school was practically abuzz about Sydney’s confirmation by silence of her affair with Michael. Of course, Sydney would not have known about this since those involved in rumors rarely heard about them, but as luck would have it she did hear about it while in a bathroom stall. With the stall door closed, no one knew she was inside and Sydney could not believe the conversation she was hearing.

“Did you hear someone at McMillan is sleeping with Mr. Vaughn?” a girl with a squeaky voice said.

“NO! Who is it? Ms. Krieger the librarian – they’d make a cute couple,” another girl with a deeper voice said with a slight giggle.

“No it’s a student! Some senior girl,” Squeaky voice said.

“No way!” a third girl chimed in.

“Totally! That’s what I heard! They’ve been like…having sex in his classroom or something. Apparently she’s in his English class. I guess she’s been staying after school for some extra credit,” Squeaky voice said suggestively. The other girls laughed.

“Hmm I wonder if she’s on the school newspaper, too? Mr. Vaughn’s the coordinator of that, right?” the deep voice girl asked.

“I think so…oh! My friend Sara is on the newspaper – I’ll ask her if she’s notice Mr. Vaughn getting friendly with anyone!”

With this, the girl’s conversation ended as they left the bathroom. Once they were gone, Sydney emerged from the stall she was in laughing to herself. Her evil plan was working and, little did she know that it was about to get a lot more interesting.
 
hahahahahahahaha oh man girls bathrooms.......that's like gossip central right there.......it's like a rule that when going to the bathroom in high school and your friends are there you MUST spread some kind of gossip...can't wait for more!
 
Chapter 12
Just a few days after Sydney overheard the bathroom gossip about herself and Michael, she was sitting in the cafeteria enjoying her lunch at a table by herself. In the time since she started at McMillan, she actually grew to enjoy her solitary eating time. It gave her time to begin some of her homework, which saved her time in the evenings.

Just as she was about to start on her Pre-Calculus homework, she was shocked to feel the table vibrate as other sat down around her. She looked up and was utterly stunned to see three girls and two boys sitting around her. Amazingly, each and every one of those people had been part of the crew throwing food at her not a month earlier. It was fascinating to see just how quickly times changed.

“Can we sit with you?” Susan asked politely. Of course, she was already sitting down so Sydney was hardly in a position to refuse, not that she was going to anyway.

“Um, yeah, sure,” she said distantly. “Can I help you guys?”

“No we just wanted to sit with you,” another girl, Nikki, smiled.

“And, you know, chat,” Susan added.

“Chat…,” Sydney repeated slowly. Somehow she had a feeling that hers and Michael’s nonexistent extracurricular activities were going to be brought up in that conversation.

“Well yeah. You came from Alaska right? Was it like…cold up there?” Jenny, a girl from Sydney’s English class, asked. Needless to say, Jenny had never been one of the sharper tools in the shed, at least not in Sydney’s experience with her.

“Um…yeah,” she said stupidly, not knowing what else to say. “But it actually wasn’t as cold as you thought….we lived in the southernmost point of the state, you see,” she said, hoping they would not ask her too many questions about Alaska, which she knew almost nothing about.

“Were there any hot mountain men there?” Nikki asked with a giggle.

“Not that I saw,” Sydney said with a slight laugh. Nikki actually looked disappointed.

“So what’s up with you and Mr. Vaughn?” One of the boys, Greg, asked. “I mean, are you two like dating?”

“Oh god no,” Sydney said quickly. “That’s crazy!”

“So what’s going on?!” Susan asked in a low voice, leaning towards her. Sydney could tell from Susan’s expression that she was anxious to have Sydney reveal all her deepest darkest secrets to her. Most likely, if Sydney did this, they would only be used against her at a later point in time. Luckily, Sydney had no plans on revealing anything true about herself.

“Oh nothing its nothing,” she sighed casually, looking back down into the cup of yogurt before her. “It’s just…you know he’s my favorite teacher -- ever,” she added with a suggestive laugh. Everyone else sitting at the table howled and laughed at this comment.

“I’ll bet he is!”

“So is he like a good …teacher?” Jenny asked.

“Well he certainly isn’t bad…but you know,” Sydney lowered her voice significantly, “we probably shouldn’t be talking about this here.”

“Oh she’s absolutely right,” Susan said, whispering as well. “How about you come to the mall with us sometime Sydney? You know, do some shopping maybe grab some coffee…”

“Oh,” Sydney hesitated, unsure of how to respond to this. On one hand, the abused geek inside her wanted to laugh right in their faces and tell them that there was no way in hell she was going to hang out with them; she was far better than them and should not waste time in their company. She knew, though, that this was the exact break she needed for her story and she could not say no. “Yeah that sounds nice…”

“Great! Well maybe we can arrange it right after we come back from thanksgiving break then,” Susan said happily. Sydney agreed with a nod and then she watched them all walk away. Then, she turned her attention back to her yogurt; it truly was amazing how much her popularity changed on the account of some highlights, makeup, sung jeans and, of course, a sex scandal.

~*~

When Sydney told Michael about her invitation to the mall, Michael was very surprised. In his mind, the mall was some sort of coveted temple for teenage girls and invites would not come easily. He was happy, though, that Sydney was finally getting the access she needed to make the best story possible.

Just a few days after Susan and her cronies sat with Sydney at lunch, Thanksgiving break began. In the few days before this, Sydney had received hellos and smiles from almost every member of the A crowd as she walked down the halls. This was a complete one-eighty from her first two months at McMillan and Sydney had to admit that was definitely a welcome change.

Unfortunately for Sydney, her break did not consist of any break at all due to the fact that all she was doing was writing papers and doing projects and other homework related tasks. This did not surprise her of course; she remembered teachers pilling on the homework during her own school years. She did not do any work on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, figuring she needed at least one day to relax. On Friday, though, she got down to business.

During the late morning, as a welcome distraction, Michael turned up at Sydney’s doorstep bearing pumpkin pie and a few other leftover Thanksgiving goodies, since he knew Sydney was spending the holiday by herself that year. “My mom always makes tons of food – enough to feed a small army, so I figured it was the least I could do,” he explained.

“Oh this is wonderful thank you. I definitely need some brain food for all the homework I’m doing,” she said, digging right into the pumpkin pie.

“You know you don’t have to do those English assignments if you don’t want to… I mean, just write whatever felgercarb down so it looks like you’re turning something in,” Michael told her.

“But I like doing that – it’s the fun stuff,” she told him. “It’s the other stuff that’s miserable.”

“Like what else?”

“History paper…math packet in preparation for our midterm…gym paper-”

“What the hell do you have to write for gym?!” Michael asked with shock.

“I dunno…we have to pick a sports figure and say how they changed the sport or something… I don’t even know how I’m going to do that and the worst part is I’m just trying to get C’s in everything since it doesn’t really matter and all.”

“Well,” Michael said, shrugging off his jacket, “I’ll do your gym paper.”

“Oh Michael you don’t have to,” Sydney said quickly, not wanting him to waste his time on her homework.

“But I want to. Besides, it gives me time to spend with you right? And the faster you get your homework done the faster you get to do fun stuff like making out,” he grinned wickedly. Sydney laughed loudly before leading the way to her couch, where her homework station was set up.

Half an hour later, after doing some research with Sydney’s laptop, Michael joined her on the couch to write up the paper he had concocted on Michael Jordan’s contribution to basketball. Really, he was not a huge basketball fan himself, but Michael Jordan was the first name that popped into his mind as he was thinking about famous sports stars. Aside from Wayne Gretzky of course, but he felt Michael Jordan was easier and something Sydney would have come up with.

“So what did you do yesterday?” Michael asked finally when he was in need of a break from thinking. “I mean, where were your parents at?”

“Oh,” she said shortly, putting her history text book aside. “Didn’t I tell you? My parents are dead…”

“What?!” he gasped.

“Yeah, they died when I was twenty,” she said. “See my dad was a commercial pilot for Delta airlines, but he also had this small plane of his own…well, while I was at school, one day he decided to take it up with my mom. She never really liked that plane but went up anyway…well they don’t really know what happened, but they think it was a sudden gust of wind and the plane went down… They were killed instantly,” she said sadly.

“Oh my god Sydney I am so sorry!” Michael exclaimed, immediately pulling her into his arms.

“It’s okay Michael,” she said, though she hugged him back.

“So you don’t have any family? No siblings?” he asked, horrified that she was so alone in the world. In a way, it made all the teasing and ridiculing she suffered during her own high school years and her time at McMillan all the worse. If one did not have a family, friends became family, but if she did not have friends…well, Michael did not want to dwell on that; at least she had him.

Sydney shook her head. “No siblings…this was my grandparent’s house; they died by the time I was seventeen… my parents hung onto it for whatever reason, so after they died I moved in here. The mortgage is all paid off so it’s pretty affordable.”

“Oh Sydney,” Michael said, giving her head a gentle kiss.

“It’s okay, Michael; I’m okay,” she assured him with a strong smile.

“Well you’re coming home with me for Christmas,” he told her as if she had no choice in the matter.

“OH Michael that’s completely unnecessary,” she assured him.

“What are you insane?! You cannot spend Christmas alone. I won’t allow it,” he promised.

“Thank you,” she said softly, leaning her forehead against his.

“Anytime,” he promised.
 
awww poor syd! At least she has Michael now....which Christmas at his house should be fun.....Amelia going on and on and on about how she wants Michael to get married and settle down! hahaha yep that should be fun! Can't wait for more!
 
Chapter 13
When Susan had said to Sydney that she would contact her after Thanksgiving break and invite her to go shopping, Sydney’s immediate reaction had been yeah right. She thought that invite was a fake; just something that people like Susan said to people like her to make them feel as though they were wanted. Of course this did not work on Sydney; she could have cared less if she went shopping with Susan or not.

Much to Sydney’s surprise, though, just a few days after Thanksgiving break, Susan approached her once more and invited her to the mall on Friday after school. For a few moments, Sydney was too shocked to even react, but finally she agreed, hoping the event would not be too painful.

Sydney’s Friday shopping outing with Susan, Nikki, Jenny, and another girl, Har, short for Harriet (who, not surprisingly, hated her name) was actually a very stressful event for her. She knew she had just one chance – one and only one – to impress Susan and her friends and hopefully earn an invite to another mall outing or perhaps even to some other social event. To add to her stress was the ominous phone call she had received from her boss the previous afternoon demanding that he see a rough article, which, of course, she did not have. Luckily, she could assure him that she was right on the cusp of something big.

“So, Sydney, tell us – what’s your favorite store here?” Susan asked Sydney as they walked into the mall, all five of them linking arms.

“Oh, um,” Sydney stammered for a moment, trying to think of the answer Susan would want to hear, instead of her own answer which was ‘whatever is on sale’. “I like a lot of them but I guess if I had to pick…American Eagle?”

“That’s our favorite too!” Jenny squealed happily. Sydney sighed with relief.

“So where are we going to shop first ladies?” Nikki asked.

“Um, actually, I was hoping you guys might be able to help me with something,” Sydney jumped in, hoping for a bonding point. “I need a new outfit – for a date – and I could use some advice.”

“Oh my god! You’re going on a date with Mr. Vaughn?! Like a real date?!” Jenny gasped.

“God no!” Sydney snapped quickly. “No, no this is someone else – from a different school. Mi..Mitch, yeah Mitch. I met him at the movies over the weekend,” Sydney lied quickly.

“So wait,” Har asked. “Did you and Mr. Vaughn like…break up?”

“Our relationship…isn’t exactly defined…” Sydney said slowly. Okay so that was technically true. Since she and Michael could not date in the traditional sense, they had yet to define themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend. However, considering that Sydney was going home with Michael for Christmas, she had a fairly good indication that was the direction they were heading in, even if it was not yet official.

“God that’s awful,” Susan shook her head. “Mr. Vaughn seems like such a nice guy…he didn’t strike me as the type who would use a girl for sex…”

“He’s not using me,” Sydney assured her. “But its not like I can go on a date with my English teacher – I mean, people would see.”

“Oh I get it!” Jenny jumped in. “You and Mr. Vaughn can’t be officially together because its probably against some school rule or something, so you’re going out with that Mitch guy to make it seem like you’re not really with Mr. Vaughn, but really you are!”

“Um…that’s close,” Sydney said with a slight laugh. Of course, her laugh was more a nervous reaction than anything else. She was hoping the subject could be changed as quickly as possible before she got herself or Michael in too much over their heads.

“Well we’ll help you find something for your date, won’t we girls?” Susan giggled. The rest nodded in agreement and they headed off towards the nearest trendy store.


Twenty minutes later, Sydney was purchasing a skirt that she felt was miles to short, but since Susan and the other girls assured her it was beyond perfect, she was hardly in a position to resist. At least it was on sale. In addition to the skirt, she bought a pink top that went perfect with it, which, surprisingly, she actually liked and was glad she found for herself. Jenny and Nikki assured her that if Mr. Vaughn knew she was going out with another guy in that outfit, he would be so jealous he would not be able to stand it. Somehow, Sydney had a feeling they might be right.

After an exhausting shopping outing, during which the girls’ parent’s credit cards were given quite a workout, Sydney finally got the invitation she had been desperately seeking. “So, I know we’re all going to be busy over the holidays and stuff, but we were thinking about having this party in mid-January. You know, over mid-terms week since we’re not going to be in school and all,” Susan said to Sydney.

“Oh yeah?” Sydney asked, trying to sound interested but not overly excited.

“Yeah, it would be on Tuesday afternoon of that week. I think the only mid-terms then are for the ninth and tenth graders… you don’t have any then, do you?”

“Um,” Sydney paused to think of her schedule. “No I think I only have them on Monday, Wednesday and one on Thursday.”

“Great! So you can come then?” Susan asked. Sydney shrugged and nodded. “Awesome! We’ll let you know later about the details. You know - time and location.”

“Okay, thanks,” Sydney smiled at her. Then, shockingly, Susan pulled Sydney into a one armed hug. Sydney was so stunned she could hardly move and continued to stand statuesque as Nikki, Jenny, and Har hugged her in turn. “See you guys Monday,” she managed as they all left.

“Wear your skirt to show off to You Know Who!” Jenny called back with a wave.

Sydney laughed softly and waved back before heading in the direction of where her own car was parked. As she walked, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Michael’s number. She had promised to call him and let him know when she was done shopping, so they could eat dinner together at her townhouse.


When they met there later on, the first thing Michael asked was how her shopping excursion went. “Well I bought a slutty skirt,” she responded.

“Oh I wanna see,” he smiled at her. She gave him a look. “I was serious!” he laughed.

“Its terrible…I should take it back, but its for my date so I can’t.”

“And what date would this be?” he asked with confusion.

“The one I had to make up… and then, of course, they asked if we broke up and I told them we didn’t have a defined relationship so now they think you’re just a jerk who’s using me for sex,” Sydney informed him.

“Oh wonderful,” he said with obvious sarcasm.

“Sorry,” she cringed slightly.

“It’s okay… I’m hoping this whole thing will come out as a ruse sooner or later anyway,” he sighed.

“I promise it will.”

“Good,” he smiled. “So was this trip at least worth while? I mean aside from the slutty skirt…”

“Actually it was! I got invited to a party they’re having during mid-terms week…and I figure it’ll be the typical drinking until we die type thing, so maybe it’ll give me good insights for my article because you know teenage binge drinking is becoming a big issue,” she pointed out.

“Yeah I know…well I really hope it works out for you,” he said before giving her a quick kiss.

“Thanks,” she smiled, “me too.”
 
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