Chapter 22
For Sydney, the next week was the best she had ever had, which was practically ironic considering a few days earlier it had been the absolute worst. She did not know what to expect first thing Monday morning when she turned in her article to Mr. Carlen. After all, it was not exactly the exposé he was looking for. True, it did expose some things (teenage orgies among them), but that was not the focus of the article.
Much to her utter shock, Mr. Carlen loved her article. In fact, he beyond loved it. He wanted her to do a week long series of articles on the topic since one just did not due it justice. He wanted in depth details about these parties and the warning signs parents should look for to see if their children were participating in such scandalous behavior.
When Sydney firmly turned down his offer, Mr. Carlen was in utter disbelief, but she had her reasons. For starters, after everything that happened with Greg, she was just too close to the issue. She was also ready to move on with her life past those horrific high school days. She had been there and done that twice now, and she was ready to tackle other issues.
Mr. Carlen could not force her to write the articles he desired, of course, but he did not bother hiding his disappointment on the issue. He took her notes and passed them on to another reporter who he hoped would be able to uncover something more on the issue. Then, he sent Sydney back to her regular desk, where a stack of articles needing editing were waiting for her.
Thought this was a return to the mundane job she once wanted a change from, Sydney welcomed it in this case. After all, it did not involve taking notes, memorizing facts or taking tests. Above that, she could wear whatever she wanted without fear of ridicule and she knew that once she left the office for the day she would have no homework. It was wonderful.
Just two days later, as Sydney was still enjoying the return to being just another editor, she and Michael went out on their first official date. Michael chose the restaurant and the two of them went out and had a perfect dinner together. As much as they promised it wouldn’t, their conversation did end up turning to McMillan and what was going on there now that Sydney had left. Apparently, everyone was still gossiping about Sydney’s presence there and dozens of fallacies that went along with it. Of course, many students questioned Michael to death, trying to get him to dish out gossip, but he always gave a standard “No comment” line. Sydney could not help but think that by the time her article ran in a few days, the kids at McMillan would have
a lot more to talk and gossip about.
~*~
For the next month, things for Sydney and Michael went perfectly. They went out on three or four dates a week, but only spent the night together on Friday and Saturday, non-school nights. Otherwise, Michael would have had to get up at an ungodly hour to make it to McMillan on time and Sydney felt guilty making him do this. Besides, she had Heathcliff to fill Michael’s side of the bed when he wasn’t there.
When Michael discovered Sydney’s twenty-fifth birthday was quickly approaching, he was shocked to find out that she rarely celebrated her birthday milestones. Well, she celebrated them when she was younger, but admitted she had not celebrated at all since her parents died. This did not surprise Michael, since he knew full well her social experiences left something to be desired; however, he was not willing to let this tradition of hers continued. He decided he was going to throw her a huge surprise bash.
This, of course, was a good idea in theory, but in actual practice was rather difficult. Sydney did not have many friends, making a huge bash with all her nearest and dearest not so huge after all. To remedy this situation, Michael decided the hugeness of the party did not have to be in the guest list, more in the way he pulled it off.
After borrowing a key to her house, Michael set to work on decorating it floor to ceiling all in Sydney’s favorite colors: pink, purple, and soft yellow. Of course the amount of streamers and balloons he was using was a vastly excessive number, but he was going for shock value not a fashion statement.
As he blew up balloons and hung streamers around doorways, Heathcliff followed him around the house, batting at the dangling piece of paper until they would tear down. This made Michael realize he needed to hang everything at least three feet above the floor, far out of the range of the little kitty’s claws. Finally, Michael heard Sydney’s key grinding in the front door lock and ran to his position behind the streamers and balloons in the kitchen area.
Sydney walked inside and saw the mass of colors plus the Happy Birthday banners and gasped. Never had she seen anything quite like Michael’s excessive display and never had anything even close to it been done for her. She was so touched by what he had done that she began to cry, which, naturally, made Michael concerned, but she assured him they were good tears.
After touring through all the decorations Michael covered her house with and eating the cake he bought her, the two of them headed to the mall so Sydney could pick out her birthday present. Michael was a self-proclaimed horrible present buyer and did best if he was told exactly what to get otherwise he failed miserable and bought something ridiculous. Sydney had to laugh at this strange quality, but she found it more endearing than annoying, which for Michael was a good thing.
As they walked hand-in-hand down the mall, Sydney thought she heard someone calling out her name. Confused, she turned and looked in the direction the voice was coming from. There, she was surprised to find Jenny barreling towards her, waving her arms frantically. Jenny, once under the Queen Bee’s control, was shockingly dressed in a sweatshirt and tattered jeans, her hair up in a ponytail with not a drop of makeup on her face.
“Sydney! Sydney I’m so glad to see you!” Jenny said excitedly as she pulled Sydney into a hug. “Hi Mr. Vaughn,” she added in a calmer tone.
“Hi Jenny,” he laughed softly.
“Sydney I just wanted to thank you,” Jenny said to her.
“Thank…me?!” she asked with surprise.
Jenny nodded. “Yes. You’re article helped me so much! I stopped listening to Susan and what she said. Of course, now she hates me and no one will talk to me, but I found some new friends and I’m really glad I’m not going to those parties anymore!” she said seriously.
“Well I’m glad,” Sydney smiled at her. Then, Jenny said her goodbyes, stating that she did not want to interrupt Sydney and Michael’s time together, and she left.
“You see that,” Michael said, slipping an arm around her waist. “You helped her and I bet you helped tons of other girls too.”
“I know that’s so…weird,” Sydney laughed softly. Michael gave her a curious look. “I mean, I helped her become a geek…I’m creating more geeks! Is that a good thing?”
Michael laughed. “Well, I think it is. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I happen to love my little geek,” he said, kissing her cheek.
Sydney laughed. “I think I’m gonna make you a bumper sticker that says that.”
“Alright,” he agreed, laughing as well.
She gave him a skeptical look. “You’d really use that?”
“Sure,” he shrugged.
“You’re crazy!”
“Just about you,” he promised.
Epilogue
“I am never going back to high school again!” fourteen-year-old Kaitlyn Vaughn exclaimed as she walked through the front door of her parent’s home. She promptly slammed the door behind her and ran upstairs to her room before her mother had a chance to respond.
It took a moment for Sydney to make her way upstairs with two-year-old Jack on her hip. During Kaitlyn’s birth, there was a complication that left Sydney was severe scarring. Doctors were not sure she could ever have more children. While at the time Sydney and Michael were upset about this, they were not entirely devastated, having not been certain they wanted more than one child anyway. However, just as they were selling Kaitlyn’s baby things (figuring they would never be used again) and moving to a different house, the Vaughn family was graced with Jack very unexpectedly.
Since Sydney was thirty-eight years old during her pregnancy, it was labeled as high-risk and she was forced on bed rest beginning at her seventh month. After healthy baby boy Jack was born, Sydney quit her reporting job at the newspaper to stay home and focus on her new child. Two years later, she had yet to return to work, but planned on doing so once Jack was in preschool.
“Kaitlyn?” Sydney questioned, rapping gently on her daughter’s bedroom door. “Honey what happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” Kaitlyn shouted back. Knowing her daughter could have a temper and often times needed half an hour alone just to cool down, Sydney went back downstairs to finish making the family’s dinner.
At the usual time of four thirty, Michael Vaughn arrived home. While he still taught high school English, he did not teach at the school his daughter attended. Starting when Kaitlyn was eight years old, she begged the family to move into the neighboring district so she did not have to suffer the emotional trauma of having her father at her high school twenty four-seven. After years of begging, they finally agreed. This, of course, was right around the time Sydney became pregnant and while their new addition was unplanned and unexpected, he was very welcome. Even Kaitlyn enjoyed having a little brother…most of the time, anyway.
“There’s my little man,” Michael beamed as he scooped Jack up from the child-size table he was sitting at, coloring. Jack immediately locked his tiny arms around his father, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “How was your day buddy?”
“Good,” Jack responded simply.
“Good,” Michael laughed softly in response. Then, he set Jack back down on the floor and walked over to greet his wife of sixteen years.
“Apparently Kait had a very bad day at school,” Sydney sighed.
“What? Why? It was the first day, how bad could it have been?” Michael asked. Of course, he knew just how bad high school could be for some students, but Kaitlyn had always fit in well in other years. True, she may not have been the most popular girl in her class, but she did have a close circle of friends she spent time with.
“I have no idea; she locked herself in her room and won’t talk to me,” Sydney said with a sigh. Somehow, she just knew this year would be the beginning of many mother-daughter feuds. She had been lucky so far; there hadn’t been many.
“I’ll go talk to her…or try anyway,” Michael sighed.
Upstairs, he found Kaitlyn’s door was no longer locked, but he knocked on it before entering anyway. “Kait its me. Can we talk?” There was no response, so Michael opened the door slowly. Kaitlyn was sitting on her bed looking at a textbook, an iPod in her ears.
“Hey,” Michael tapped her head lightly. “What’d we say about the iPod and homework?”
“But Dad its just math,” Kaitlyn whined.
“I know and you’re good at math, which is why you don’t need to use your iPod while doing it,” he told her seriously. “Now, your mother says you had a bad day. What happened honey?”
“Nothing,” Kaitlyn grumbled. Of course Michael didn’t believe her, and he kneeled down beside her bed to stare her down until she gave up what was bothering her. “It’s just…everyone hates me. I had to sit all by myself at lunch today!”
“Ok first, no one hates you. Second, where were all your friends, huh?” he asked.
“They all have a different lunch than me! I’m all by myself and I hate it!” she whined.
“You’re not all by yourself Kait. It was just the first day of school – everyone’s still adjusting. I promise by the end of the week you will find someone to sit with at lunch and they certainly won’t hate you,” he assured her. Then, he leaned over and kissed her head gently. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Kait sighed. “But if you’re wrong you have to buy me something pretty.”
“Deal,” Michael laughed.
thanks for reading guys
just so you know, Once In with the A crowd is over i'm not going to be posting any more fics at AA. Its really not worth it when i just get 4 reviews a chapter bc it does take a lot of time. I'll just be posting them at RF and/or OI.
If you have questions just PM me
thanks for reading and there will be a new fic at OI tom. morning