Hey guys! I'm Bubbles and this is one of my fics that I have at www.alias-media.com/allies and I've had requests to start posting at a forum site, so here I go.
NOTE: I'm not going to be sending out PMs simply because I don't have time and I rarely come to this site... really sorry guys!!
Disclaimer:
I don’t own ALIAS. I’m not trying to make money, or breaching Copyright or anything else that I could be accused of, so please don’t sue me.
A/N:
I pretty much made this up on the spot. I came up with a really insane idea and I just opened Word up and started typing. It’s set in college and the first (who knows how many?) chapters make this seem like a fic that has the basic s/v high school fic (I love the high school fluff fics!), but then I realised that I could come up with a better plot and believe me, there is a better plot on the way with lots of spy stuff in it. Oh, by the way, Syd is in no way a geek in this. I edited it, but there’s probably still a few mistakes in there. Please tell me if you spot any (which I bet you will) so I can fix them.
What is the equivelant of reviewing at a forum site... posting a reply?? Well please do!! xoxo Bubbles
Chapter One
Sydney Bristow stared at her notebook and tried to listen to her teacher but nothing that was being said was registering in her mind. She was in History class and she knew she should probably be concentrating but for some reason she couldn’t. She frowned. This wasn’t like her.
She looked around and realised that even though it was already into the fifth week, she didn’t know half of her class. Her eyes travelled from person to person before settling on a guy in the row in front of her to the right. His hair colour was between a dirty blonde and a gorgeous brown. He looked tall and fit. She frowned. Of course, she’d seen him on the track early in the morning a few times when she had gone to run there herself. She stared at him and took in every line, every hair on his face, she took in the tiny bits of stubble on his cheeks before roving her eyes up and down his body. He was gorgeous. There was no denying that. He turned his head to the left and Sydney got her first glimpse of his eyes. She couldn’t help letting out a gasp. They were a gorgeous green, but not any type of green she’d seen before. They were a piercing green and even though she had only got a second glimpse of them, they were so-
“Miss Bristow? Miss Bristow? Are you paying attention?”
She blinked and looked up at her teacher’s frowning face and sighed. “Yes, Mr Danker.”
He kept his gaze at her a while longer before continuing to talk about Medieval Times and Sydney found herself not paying attention again and her eyes had once again shifted to the guy. And she felt her stomach turn. He looked back and met her gaze and he smiled. He smiled at her! She smiled back and in that one moment, she felt some sort of connection. The bell rang and she heard her teacher’s words.
“So I want everyone to read chapters 3-4 and next lesson we will discuss them next lesson. Class dismissed.”
She frowned to herself. If she had payed the slightest attention the whole class, she might not have to catch up on the last chapter that they had just covered in class. She grabbed her books and her backpack before heading out the door and the guy was in front of her. She could almost inhale his scent and it was making her feel queasy. He turned right and she turned left toward her locker but she kept her head turned back and continued staring at him before-
“Whoa there!”
She had slammed into someone and her books had flown out of her hands. She turned her head forward and looked at who had spoken. It was Will Tippin one of her best friends and Francie Calfo her other best friend.
“God, sorry Will.”
He looked at her closely. “Are you okay? You’re never this clumsy.”
“I’m fine. You know, just tired.” She faked a yawn to emphasize her point. No way was she telling him the truth. That she was too busy staring at the hottest guy she had ever in her life seen. She felt her cheeks starting to warm and looked at Francie who raised her eyebrows and jerked her head to the direction in which the guy had walked. She stared at Syd, hard, and then back in the direction of the gorgeous boy then put on a look of lust. Sydney knew exactly what she was trying to say and glared at her and jerked her head towards Will. Francie understood and gave her a slight nod. She exhaled in relief. She loved Will and all, but she wasn’t prepared to talk to him about her love life. It just wasn’t… right. She looked at Will to make sure he hadn’t understood what had happened but the look on his face was one of total bewilderment. She laughed.
“Guys, how the hell do you understand that?” He started shaking his head. “Is it a girl thing? I mean what’s wrong with the usual guy thing. Watch.” He grabbed the nearest guy to him and slapped him on the back. “Yo man! What’s up?” Sydney and Francie tried to not laugh. Will had chosen the worst boy. It was Marshall, the geeks of all geeks (A/N: Aww! I hate to be mean to Marshall!) Will looked at him and his jaw dropped. He let him go and quickly the three of them ran out of the doors laughing.
Sydney turned to Will. “Tell me that thing again about the usual guy thing.”
Francie was still laughing. “Did you see his face? It was like he had just won the lottery or something. I don’t ever think anyone who has an IQ of below 200 has ever spoken to him!”
“Come on you two, it usually works… you just got to do it with the right guy. It usually feels good.”
Sydney wrinkled her nose. “Will, that did not come out right. Anyway, do you guys want to go grab some pizza at Joey’s?”
Will shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t. If I don’t hand in this assignment in on Monday my teacher is going to kill me. Not the best impression to put on the teachers so early in the year.”
“Will, have you ever actually put a good impression on a teacher?”
He faked a look of hurt and started walking backwards. “That hurt Bristow, that hurt.” He turned around and started off in the direction of his home.
“Bye Will!” she yelled after him. He raised his hand in response.
Sydney looked at Francie who was still amused by the whole situation. Sydney grabbed her arm and dragged her in the opposite direction before she could say anything more to Will.
“Oh come on Syd! I had a really good comeback for him.” Sydney smiled and slapped her playfully. The two kept talking and were soon seated at Joey’s Pizza with a pepperoni pizza in between them. Francie was through her second slice before she realised that Syd had barely eaten anything; she was just picking at her slice and staring through the window.
“Syd?”
She snapped her head towards Francie. “Huh?” she blurted out.
“What’s up? You’ve barely eaten anything… wait is this about that guy you were staring at?”
She smiled and looked down at her slice of pizza. “Maybe.”
Francie sighed. “He’s SO hot.”
“You think I didn’t notice?” She it her lip, not sure if she should ask Fran more questions. She was not in the mood for another one of Fran’s attempts to set her up with a guy, but she was dying to know more about him. “Do you know who he is? What’s his name?”
“He’s in my biology class… oh god, what’s his name?” She frowned as she tried to remember. “Uh… oh yeah, Michael. Michael Vaughn.” She sighed and kept talking about how his girlfriend must be the luckiest girl in the world.
But Syd wasn’t listening. “Vaughn?” she whispered more to herself than to Francie. Francie nodded and took another bite of pizza. Sydney closed her eyes and thought back. Where had she heard that name before? She tried to remember, but all she could remember was her father with two other men in the living room. She frowned. What’s that got to do with the name Vaughn?
“Syd? What’s happening? You can’t be that love struck with just a name.”
“No, it just seems like I’ve heard that before…” she shook her head but a picture of him envisioned itself and her eyes became dreamy.
“Whoa, Syd! You got a crush on him?” Francie was looking at her expectantly.
“Yeah, I… guess I do.”
“Just be careful, ok? You don’t want to end up with someone like Andy.”
“Ugh! Don’t remind me about him. The two-timing jerk… wait a minute. You’re acting like Michael’s my boyfriend or something.”
“Well, he could be couldn’t he?” Sydney raised an eyebrow at her.
“Oh, come on, Syd! You’re gorgeous, smart, talented, funny… you could go get any guy you wanted.” Sydney’s cheek warmed at the thought of Michael as her boyfriend. Eating dinner with him, watching movies with him, holding his hand, kissing him… ok, best not to go there, but she couldn’t stop now that she’d started. She imagined what it would be like to kiss him. She blinked and forced herself to stop thinking of him.
“Anyway, so how’s life so far?
“It’s great but Syd, you’re in none of my classes!”
“What about Will? Isn’t he in a couple of yours?”
“Yeah, but…”
“Fran! I don’t have you or Will in a single of my classes! Consider yourself lucky!!”
They continued talking, but Syd’s mind was only half in the discussion. She was still thinking about Michael, and then of course his name. Vaughn. She didn’t know what to make of it. They finished the pizza before Francie headed back to her dorm and Syd to her house that the shared with her father. She looked in her bag for her keys and she suddenly remembered where her keys were: on the kitchen table. She went through her bag again and found a paperclip and bent it out and picked the lock. (A/N: I don’t know if it is physically possible to pick a lock with a piece of wire, but it makes sense so I used it since I couldn’t think of anything else.) The door swung open silently. She tossed the paperclip back into her bag and wondered how exactly she knew how to pick a lock. She closed the door behind her and thought. A lot of things in her life were strange. She just had little skills that she had no idea if she had been taught or if she just picked them up through her life.
She walked into the kitchen and on the table was a note with familiar writing. She picked it up and read it.
Sydney,
I’m going to be working late tonight, so I can’t join you for dinner.
Dad.
She sighed and felt sadness building up inside her. Her father was a complicated man. When she was little, she could remember that her father and her mother were both there for her. And the biggest concern was probably not losing her favourite teddy bear. Then her mother died when she was six and her whole life changed. Of course, losing your mother is never easy. But it seems to Sydney that that was when her life took a serious turn. Her father was mostly affected by Laura, her mother’s death. He closed himself up on the rest of the world and Sydney, being very small had no one to look up to. She now remembered the countless nannies she had been through. It almost seemed to her that she had raised herself. Her father had taken comfort in his job, exporting airplane parts. He literally dropped off the face off the earth. Sydney couldn’t remember the last time that she had talked to her father. Like, really talked to her father. It was strange. They could talk about the most complicated things, politics, the environment, current affairs but she had no idea what her dad’s favourite food was, what his favourite colour was. She didn’t even know what his laugh sounded like. She had gotten used to it over the past 11 years, but it still hurt.
She walked over to the mantelpiece and looked sadly at a picture of her when she was little on her dad’s shoulders. She brushed her finger along the frame. Her father looked so happy there; just enjoying a picnic with his daughter and his wife… she looked to the left of the picture and saw her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes. She missed her mother so much. She had been so beautiful. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts before she started bawling in the middle of the den.
She headed into the kitchen and opened the fridge, thinking of what to eat. She stared at the food and was totally uninspired. She sighed. Looked like another night of ready made dinners. She grabbed a box, peeled the cardboard off and put in the microwave to warm up. She grabbed her books out of her bag, and studied while she ate. She started reading through her English book and cringed. Every poem was about romance. She’d actually managed to stop thinking about him in the past hour or so, but this was not helping her at all. Sydney slammed her book shut and went into the den to watch TV. She flicked through the channels till something interesting came on. She snuggled into the couch and realised what it was. Sleepless In Seattle; every romantic’s favourite movie. Man, it was like the whole world had come up with a scheme that would not let her forget about Michael. Still, she stayed and watched the whole movie before climbing into bed to do more studying. She forced herself to stop thinking about Michael as she studied and worked steadily for an hour more before turning off her nightlight and going to sleep, thinking about who else but Michael Vaughn.
********************************************
Next day
Study Period
Michael Vaughn looked up from his book and felt that something was wrong. He slowly took in the scene in the room. He didn’t move his head, just his eyes.
“Weiss!” he hissed to his friend next to him. Weiss looked up and answered.
“Yeah?”
“Is it just me, or is every girl in the room staring at me?” Weiss looked around and grinned.
“Nope, every girl really is staring at you.” Michael raised his eyebrows and looked back down at his book. He heard sigh somewhere to the left of him and he looked left out of the corner of his eye and saw a girl who he would never look twice at with her head propped up on her right hand with a dreamy look in her eyes who quickly averted her attention away from him. He heard Weiss s****** next to him and he turned to him.
“Shut up!” Weiss was still silently laughing. Michael rolled his eyes in exasperation and put his books in his backpack.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Eric, man, you would love to be in my shoes. But believe me, it is NO fun.”
Weiss looked at him, bewildered. “How the hell could you not enjoy this? You have chicks hanging onto you right from New York to Sacramento!”
Michael gave him a blank look. “What?”
“Oh My God, just get this. You can never escape the girls. Apparently in female world, you are considered hot.” He looked Michael up and down. “How, I have no idea… hey wait! Where are you going?” Michael had now swung his bag onto his shoulder. “Awesome!! You’ve finally found out what cutting class means! No seriously, where are you going?”
“Away from all this.” He gestured around the room. Weiss’s eyes grew wide.
“All the more for me, man! Have fun!”
“As if girls could ever want you!”
“Hey! Despite the fact that I’ve never really had a serious girl or anything that doesn’t make me-”
“Later, Weiss!”
He walked off to a corner of the library to a table where there was only girl sitting. Unlike the rest of the girls in the room, she was buried in her book and taking notes at an amazing speed. He recognised her. She was the girl from his history class who he had smiled at in class yesterday. Not that he had a chance to look at her properly, his breath caught in his throat. She had silky brown hair that fell over her shoulders that swayed gently with her hand movements. She had a creamy complexion and her face was gorgeous. She had a look of total concentration but even though her forehead was wrinkled in thought, she was still beautiful. There was no denying that. She almost looked like an angel. He approached the desk hesitantly.
“Anyone sitting here?”
“Hmm?” She finished writing and looked up and her eyes met his and he felt himself go weak at the knees. “What did you say?”
He tore his eyes away from hers. “Uh… is-is anyone sitting here?” He pointed to the seat to the right of her.
She shook her head. “No.” before she returned to her work and started writing again. He rolled his eyes at himself. As if a girl like her would ever want a guy like him. He sat down and got his books out and tried to continue studying but couldn’t. Not when he was sitting next to her. Everything about her was intriguing. The way she sat, the way she moved her eyes from her book to her notepad. He watched her hand move and he saw for the first time that she was writing so hard that she had practically torn holes through the paper. He looked at her face and saw that her frown was more than concentration, it looked like she was really pissed off about something. She looked at him and caught him staring at her.
“What?”
“You just look really bummed out.”
“It’s nothing. It’s just that… my life’s really complicated. More than you’d want to know.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t want to know.”
“I don’t know. Maybe the way that you stared at me for about 5 minutes before you actually sat down. Oh yeah, and it might have to do with something to do with how you’ve been staring at me for the past 10 minutes.”
He smiled. “Caught me. But you can’t talk, you know. You were staring at me the whole time during history yesterday.”
She smiled and he noticed that she got these really cute dimples in her cheeks. “Well, I guess that we both have a thing in common in that way.”
He smiled to himself and the two worked in silence for the next couple of minutes. But he couldn’t help thinking about what she had said. How much more did they have in common? Wouldn’t he love to talk to her and find more about this mysteriously beautiful girl.
“Are you dating anyone at the moment?” He had no idea where the question had come from. He had just blurted it out. She raised her eyebrows and looked at him.
“Five minutes and you’re already asking me about my love life.” She shrugged. “Must be a guy thing… I barely even know you.”
“You’ve experienced this before.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m Michael Vaughn. And you are?”
“Sydney Bristow.”
“Good, now that we know who we are talking to, you still haven’t answered my question. Are you dating anyone?”
She grinned. “Why, are you thinking of dating me?”
He chucked. He was liking Sydney more that each second that went by. “Subtle, aren’t you?”
“So, I’ve been told.”
“You still haven’t answered the question. Are you dating anyone?” She blushed and he noticed how cute she looked when she blushed. She smiled and looked down at her book.
“No.” She looked at her watch.
“Look, my next class starts in five minutes. I’d better go.” He grinned. She was obviously trying to avoid the topic.
“What class?”
“Maths.”
“With Miss Davis?” She nodded.
“Good, I’ll see you in class.”
“I guess so.” She shot him another smile that made his stomach turn before picking up her bag and heading out of the library. He was about to pick up his own bag when Weiss came up to him.
“You’re not escaping that easily, man. I saw the whole thing. And you were talking about not liking all the chick attention.” He shook his head in disbelief. “So anyway, who is she? What’s she like? Is she pretty? Stupid question, of course, she’s pretty.”
“Weiss, give me a break. Just because I have a two minute conversation with a girl doesn’t mean that she’s the love of my life or anything.” But his heart started beating faster at the thought of actually dating her. Weiss was looking at him and grinned.
“But you like her don’t you?” Michael started walking out of the library and Weiss called after him.
“You can’t escape this, you know. I have you number, I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!”
Michael just kept walking and thought of what he had done to deserve a best friend like Weiss.
********************************************
Sydney was one of the first to arrive to her Maths class. She sat down. Her head was full of thoughts; thoughts of Michael. It had seemed so natural to talk to him that she’d barely even noticed the way he looked when he talked, his laugh, the way he got some dimples when he smiled, the way that his eyes would brighten… ok maybe she had noticed, but she was thankful that she didn’t behave like a love struck giggly girl in front of him. She smiled when she thought of their conversation but her face hardened and her eyes narrowed when she remembered when she had asked her if she was all right. Truth was, she wasn’t. Her dad had never come back last night, and that morning she had gotten a text from him saying that he would be out of the country for the next fortnight. That meant an empty house for the next two weeks. She loved having the house to herself, but she just wished that her father would come out of his shell and truly start living. A voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Penny for your thoughts?” She looked up and felt herself melting. It was Michael. He sat down next to her and she suddenly felt conscious of herself and shy.
“Actually, five bucks would be better, I need money, I’m broke.” He laughed. Miss Davis came in and wrote the work up on the board. The room fell to silence as everyone took their books out and started working. Syd picked up her pen at the same time as Michael did and their hands brushed and a shot of electricity went up her arm. She jerked her hand back and Michael grinned at her.
“Happens all the time. I’m a lefty, comes from my dad.” For an instant his eyes filled with sadness and Syd wondered why but as soon as it had come it disappeared.
“You okay?” she asked him softly. He nodded and smiled. “I’m fine.”
“Miss Bristow, Michael Vaughn, save the chatter for outside the classroom please.”
“Yes, Miss Davis.” Sydney grinned at Vaughn before returning to her work. She found herself working well which was surprising since she was sitting so close to Michael, but the bell rang and she looked up surprised. The lesson seemed to have gone by so quickly. She picked up her bag and left the room to go to her locker but she sensed someone running behind her. She spun around and saw it was Michael. She smiled at him and waited for him to say something.
“Listen-uh, do you want to go get some pizza? I know this really good place, Joey’s Pizza.” For a second, she just gaped at him.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, what, is my company not good enough for you?” She blushed.
“I’d love to. Just let me get my bag. I’ll meet you outside.”
“Ok.” He shot her one of his knee-melting smiles and turned to go to his locker. Sydney stared after him before hurriedly throwing her books in her bag and slammed her locker door shut before running to Francie’s locker.
“Fran?”
“Oh, hey, Syd. Oh My God, you’re not gonna believe what happened in my English class, we-”
“FRAN!” Francie stopped talking and looked at Syd. “What’s up?”
“Michael. He asked me to go get pizza with him.” Francie’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide.
“You serious? Are we talking about Michael? Michael Vaughn?” Syd nodded.
Francie let out a squeal and hugged Sydney. “Way to go! Do you even know how lucky you are? How did this happen? How did you two get talking?”
“I talked to him in Study Period and in Maths… and then he just asked me.”
“You’re so lucky. But what’s wrong? Why are you upset?”
“What if I make a total fool of myself?”
“Syd, go.”
“NO!”
“You’re passing up a date with Michael Vaughn??”
“It’s not a date, but-” Francie pushed Syd in the direction of the door. “Go. You’ll be fine. And you’d better call me tonight!” Sydney walked down the corridor and out the double doors. She spotted Michael immediately who sent her a smile that made her stomach lurch and she gave him a tentative smile back.
“Ready to go?” She nodded and they started walking. Sydney looked around and saw that pretty much every girl on the grounds was looking at her with envy. And why shouldn’t they? She was going to get pizza with Michael Vaughn! She stole a glance at him and sighed. He looked at her.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just happy to be with you.” She gulped when the words came out but was relieved when Michael grinned back with that gorgeous smile of his. They fell into a comfortable silence until they were seated down. The waitress came to them.
“Hi, what would you like today?”
Michael and Sydney both looked at each other. “Pepperoni okay?” they both said as the same time. Sydney blushed. The waitress scribbled on her notepad.
“One pepperoni, got it.” She walked away and Michael spoke.
“You like pepperoni?”
“Uh-huh.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Really, you don’t seem like a pepperoni girl.” She looked at him.
“Then what kind of girl do I look like?” He shrugged.
“I don’t know.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her right ear and he chuckled when she did that.
“What?”
“That’s about the twentieth time you’ve don’t that today. It’s your thing.”
“I don’t have a thing.”
“Yes, you do.” (A/N: I stole that from that talk with Syd and Dixon.) “No one does that so much.”
“You have no idea what it’s like to have long hair, so you can’t talk.”
“True.” They were interrupted when the pizza came. They each took a slice and continued talking while eating.
“Tell me about your pets.”
She laughed. “What?”
“Your pets. I want to know about every pet you ever had.” (A/N: I stole that from their first date in episode 2.12)
“Okay. I haven’t had that many, but when I was about three I had a goldfish but it blew up.” He laughed. “It’s true! I think I overfed it or something, it like literally exploded!” He made a face.
“Eeew, not good when we’re eating, Syd.” She stared at him and he looked back.
“What?”
“You just called me Syd.”
“Is that a bad thing? Do you mind?”
She smiled. “Not at all.” They locked eyes but Sydney looked down and broke the moment. She’d never felt so attracted to anyone before and quickly started talking again. “Anyway, so I had this hamster once, but it got run over by a car or a truck or something. And I had a guinea-pig… but I don’t remember what happened to it.”
“What do you mean?”
She felt so comfortable talking to him that she had no trouble answering. She hardly ever talked about this with anyone except Francie. It just showed how attracted she was to him. She looked down and her voice came out just above a whisper. “That was around the time that my mother died.” She looked up and met Michael’s eyes and saw his filled with concern looking back at her. He took her hand and closed it over with his own.
“You don’t remember anything of that time. You feel like the whole world is going on but you don’t see why. You think that everyone should stop because your mother has died.” He had started whispering now and she stared at him, shocked and her eyes filled with tears.
“That’s exactly how I felt. How-how did you know.” His eyes once more filled with that sad look she had seen earlier that day and he looked down.
“My father died when I was little.” Her heart instantly went out to him. But now she didn’t know how to act because she’d never had anyone in the same situation like this. She asked him hesitantly.
“How old were you?” He looked back up.
“Eight.” He looked so sad that she wished she had never brought the topic up. He looked like an average 17 year old but she could see past that and she saw the eight year old boy inside him longing for his father.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought the topic up.” He managed a smile.
“Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault. Actually, I think that you would understand better than anyone because you’ve also lost a parent.” He saw the look on Sydney’s face and spoke quickly. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right.” She shook her head.
“Don’t be sorry, Michael.” She looked into his eyes and they locked eyes.
“I miss her,” she whispered.
“I miss him.” Sydney smiled and in that one moment, they understood more about the other than they ever thought they would. She found herself leaning closer to him and he was doing the same but the arrival of the waitress interrupted them and they sprang back and he let go off her hand. They looked sheepishly at each other.
“All finished up here?” Sydney nodded and put some money on the table and Michael did the same. They got up and thanked the waitress before heading outside.
“Where do you live?” he asked her.
“Martin Street.”
“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” Her whole body warmed up when he said that. They walked up the street and turned left on Martin Street. They kept walking until Sydney stopped in front of a pretty white house.
“Here we are.”
“I had fun.”
She smiled. “So did I. Thanks Michael.”
“I’ll see you in school tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
“Bye.”
“Bye.” He leaned toward her and gave her a chaste kiss on her cheek. Her eyes went wide. He smiled down at her and walked away. She could only stare after him in happy wonderment.
TBC
A/N: Whew! That was long! What do you think? Was the date too soon? Was the almost-kiss too soon? Did they open up about their feelings too much? Did you like it? Tell me!!
NOTE: I'm not going to be sending out PMs simply because I don't have time and I rarely come to this site... really sorry guys!!
Disclaimer:
I don’t own ALIAS. I’m not trying to make money, or breaching Copyright or anything else that I could be accused of, so please don’t sue me.
A/N:
I pretty much made this up on the spot. I came up with a really insane idea and I just opened Word up and started typing. It’s set in college and the first (who knows how many?) chapters make this seem like a fic that has the basic s/v high school fic (I love the high school fluff fics!), but then I realised that I could come up with a better plot and believe me, there is a better plot on the way with lots of spy stuff in it. Oh, by the way, Syd is in no way a geek in this. I edited it, but there’s probably still a few mistakes in there. Please tell me if you spot any (which I bet you will) so I can fix them.
What is the equivelant of reviewing at a forum site... posting a reply?? Well please do!! xoxo Bubbles
Chapter One
Sydney Bristow stared at her notebook and tried to listen to her teacher but nothing that was being said was registering in her mind. She was in History class and she knew she should probably be concentrating but for some reason she couldn’t. She frowned. This wasn’t like her.
She looked around and realised that even though it was already into the fifth week, she didn’t know half of her class. Her eyes travelled from person to person before settling on a guy in the row in front of her to the right. His hair colour was between a dirty blonde and a gorgeous brown. He looked tall and fit. She frowned. Of course, she’d seen him on the track early in the morning a few times when she had gone to run there herself. She stared at him and took in every line, every hair on his face, she took in the tiny bits of stubble on his cheeks before roving her eyes up and down his body. He was gorgeous. There was no denying that. He turned his head to the left and Sydney got her first glimpse of his eyes. She couldn’t help letting out a gasp. They were a gorgeous green, but not any type of green she’d seen before. They were a piercing green and even though she had only got a second glimpse of them, they were so-
“Miss Bristow? Miss Bristow? Are you paying attention?”
She blinked and looked up at her teacher’s frowning face and sighed. “Yes, Mr Danker.”
He kept his gaze at her a while longer before continuing to talk about Medieval Times and Sydney found herself not paying attention again and her eyes had once again shifted to the guy. And she felt her stomach turn. He looked back and met her gaze and he smiled. He smiled at her! She smiled back and in that one moment, she felt some sort of connection. The bell rang and she heard her teacher’s words.
“So I want everyone to read chapters 3-4 and next lesson we will discuss them next lesson. Class dismissed.”
She frowned to herself. If she had payed the slightest attention the whole class, she might not have to catch up on the last chapter that they had just covered in class. She grabbed her books and her backpack before heading out the door and the guy was in front of her. She could almost inhale his scent and it was making her feel queasy. He turned right and she turned left toward her locker but she kept her head turned back and continued staring at him before-
“Whoa there!”
She had slammed into someone and her books had flown out of her hands. She turned her head forward and looked at who had spoken. It was Will Tippin one of her best friends and Francie Calfo her other best friend.
“God, sorry Will.”
He looked at her closely. “Are you okay? You’re never this clumsy.”
“I’m fine. You know, just tired.” She faked a yawn to emphasize her point. No way was she telling him the truth. That she was too busy staring at the hottest guy she had ever in her life seen. She felt her cheeks starting to warm and looked at Francie who raised her eyebrows and jerked her head to the direction in which the guy had walked. She stared at Syd, hard, and then back in the direction of the gorgeous boy then put on a look of lust. Sydney knew exactly what she was trying to say and glared at her and jerked her head towards Will. Francie understood and gave her a slight nod. She exhaled in relief. She loved Will and all, but she wasn’t prepared to talk to him about her love life. It just wasn’t… right. She looked at Will to make sure he hadn’t understood what had happened but the look on his face was one of total bewilderment. She laughed.
“Guys, how the hell do you understand that?” He started shaking his head. “Is it a girl thing? I mean what’s wrong with the usual guy thing. Watch.” He grabbed the nearest guy to him and slapped him on the back. “Yo man! What’s up?” Sydney and Francie tried to not laugh. Will had chosen the worst boy. It was Marshall, the geeks of all geeks (A/N: Aww! I hate to be mean to Marshall!) Will looked at him and his jaw dropped. He let him go and quickly the three of them ran out of the doors laughing.
Sydney turned to Will. “Tell me that thing again about the usual guy thing.”
Francie was still laughing. “Did you see his face? It was like he had just won the lottery or something. I don’t ever think anyone who has an IQ of below 200 has ever spoken to him!”
“Come on you two, it usually works… you just got to do it with the right guy. It usually feels good.”
Sydney wrinkled her nose. “Will, that did not come out right. Anyway, do you guys want to go grab some pizza at Joey’s?”
Will shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t. If I don’t hand in this assignment in on Monday my teacher is going to kill me. Not the best impression to put on the teachers so early in the year.”
“Will, have you ever actually put a good impression on a teacher?”
He faked a look of hurt and started walking backwards. “That hurt Bristow, that hurt.” He turned around and started off in the direction of his home.
“Bye Will!” she yelled after him. He raised his hand in response.
Sydney looked at Francie who was still amused by the whole situation. Sydney grabbed her arm and dragged her in the opposite direction before she could say anything more to Will.
“Oh come on Syd! I had a really good comeback for him.” Sydney smiled and slapped her playfully. The two kept talking and were soon seated at Joey’s Pizza with a pepperoni pizza in between them. Francie was through her second slice before she realised that Syd had barely eaten anything; she was just picking at her slice and staring through the window.
“Syd?”
She snapped her head towards Francie. “Huh?” she blurted out.
“What’s up? You’ve barely eaten anything… wait is this about that guy you were staring at?”
She smiled and looked down at her slice of pizza. “Maybe.”
Francie sighed. “He’s SO hot.”
“You think I didn’t notice?” She it her lip, not sure if she should ask Fran more questions. She was not in the mood for another one of Fran’s attempts to set her up with a guy, but she was dying to know more about him. “Do you know who he is? What’s his name?”
“He’s in my biology class… oh god, what’s his name?” She frowned as she tried to remember. “Uh… oh yeah, Michael. Michael Vaughn.” She sighed and kept talking about how his girlfriend must be the luckiest girl in the world.
But Syd wasn’t listening. “Vaughn?” she whispered more to herself than to Francie. Francie nodded and took another bite of pizza. Sydney closed her eyes and thought back. Where had she heard that name before? She tried to remember, but all she could remember was her father with two other men in the living room. She frowned. What’s that got to do with the name Vaughn?
“Syd? What’s happening? You can’t be that love struck with just a name.”
“No, it just seems like I’ve heard that before…” she shook her head but a picture of him envisioned itself and her eyes became dreamy.
“Whoa, Syd! You got a crush on him?” Francie was looking at her expectantly.
“Yeah, I… guess I do.”
“Just be careful, ok? You don’t want to end up with someone like Andy.”
“Ugh! Don’t remind me about him. The two-timing jerk… wait a minute. You’re acting like Michael’s my boyfriend or something.”
“Well, he could be couldn’t he?” Sydney raised an eyebrow at her.
“Oh, come on, Syd! You’re gorgeous, smart, talented, funny… you could go get any guy you wanted.” Sydney’s cheek warmed at the thought of Michael as her boyfriend. Eating dinner with him, watching movies with him, holding his hand, kissing him… ok, best not to go there, but she couldn’t stop now that she’d started. She imagined what it would be like to kiss him. She blinked and forced herself to stop thinking of him.
“Anyway, so how’s life so far?
“It’s great but Syd, you’re in none of my classes!”
“What about Will? Isn’t he in a couple of yours?”
“Yeah, but…”
“Fran! I don’t have you or Will in a single of my classes! Consider yourself lucky!!”
They continued talking, but Syd’s mind was only half in the discussion. She was still thinking about Michael, and then of course his name. Vaughn. She didn’t know what to make of it. They finished the pizza before Francie headed back to her dorm and Syd to her house that the shared with her father. She looked in her bag for her keys and she suddenly remembered where her keys were: on the kitchen table. She went through her bag again and found a paperclip and bent it out and picked the lock. (A/N: I don’t know if it is physically possible to pick a lock with a piece of wire, but it makes sense so I used it since I couldn’t think of anything else.) The door swung open silently. She tossed the paperclip back into her bag and wondered how exactly she knew how to pick a lock. She closed the door behind her and thought. A lot of things in her life were strange. She just had little skills that she had no idea if she had been taught or if she just picked them up through her life.
She walked into the kitchen and on the table was a note with familiar writing. She picked it up and read it.
Sydney,
I’m going to be working late tonight, so I can’t join you for dinner.
Dad.
She sighed and felt sadness building up inside her. Her father was a complicated man. When she was little, she could remember that her father and her mother were both there for her. And the biggest concern was probably not losing her favourite teddy bear. Then her mother died when she was six and her whole life changed. Of course, losing your mother is never easy. But it seems to Sydney that that was when her life took a serious turn. Her father was mostly affected by Laura, her mother’s death. He closed himself up on the rest of the world and Sydney, being very small had no one to look up to. She now remembered the countless nannies she had been through. It almost seemed to her that she had raised herself. Her father had taken comfort in his job, exporting airplane parts. He literally dropped off the face off the earth. Sydney couldn’t remember the last time that she had talked to her father. Like, really talked to her father. It was strange. They could talk about the most complicated things, politics, the environment, current affairs but she had no idea what her dad’s favourite food was, what his favourite colour was. She didn’t even know what his laugh sounded like. She had gotten used to it over the past 11 years, but it still hurt.
She walked over to the mantelpiece and looked sadly at a picture of her when she was little on her dad’s shoulders. She brushed her finger along the frame. Her father looked so happy there; just enjoying a picnic with his daughter and his wife… she looked to the left of the picture and saw her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes. She missed her mother so much. She had been so beautiful. She shook her head and cleared her thoughts before she started bawling in the middle of the den.
She headed into the kitchen and opened the fridge, thinking of what to eat. She stared at the food and was totally uninspired. She sighed. Looked like another night of ready made dinners. She grabbed a box, peeled the cardboard off and put in the microwave to warm up. She grabbed her books out of her bag, and studied while she ate. She started reading through her English book and cringed. Every poem was about romance. She’d actually managed to stop thinking about him in the past hour or so, but this was not helping her at all. Sydney slammed her book shut and went into the den to watch TV. She flicked through the channels till something interesting came on. She snuggled into the couch and realised what it was. Sleepless In Seattle; every romantic’s favourite movie. Man, it was like the whole world had come up with a scheme that would not let her forget about Michael. Still, she stayed and watched the whole movie before climbing into bed to do more studying. She forced herself to stop thinking about Michael as she studied and worked steadily for an hour more before turning off her nightlight and going to sleep, thinking about who else but Michael Vaughn.
********************************************
Next day
Study Period
Michael Vaughn looked up from his book and felt that something was wrong. He slowly took in the scene in the room. He didn’t move his head, just his eyes.
“Weiss!” he hissed to his friend next to him. Weiss looked up and answered.
“Yeah?”
“Is it just me, or is every girl in the room staring at me?” Weiss looked around and grinned.
“Nope, every girl really is staring at you.” Michael raised his eyebrows and looked back down at his book. He heard sigh somewhere to the left of him and he looked left out of the corner of his eye and saw a girl who he would never look twice at with her head propped up on her right hand with a dreamy look in her eyes who quickly averted her attention away from him. He heard Weiss s****** next to him and he turned to him.
“Shut up!” Weiss was still silently laughing. Michael rolled his eyes in exasperation and put his books in his backpack.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Eric, man, you would love to be in my shoes. But believe me, it is NO fun.”
Weiss looked at him, bewildered. “How the hell could you not enjoy this? You have chicks hanging onto you right from New York to Sacramento!”
Michael gave him a blank look. “What?”
“Oh My God, just get this. You can never escape the girls. Apparently in female world, you are considered hot.” He looked Michael up and down. “How, I have no idea… hey wait! Where are you going?” Michael had now swung his bag onto his shoulder. “Awesome!! You’ve finally found out what cutting class means! No seriously, where are you going?”
“Away from all this.” He gestured around the room. Weiss’s eyes grew wide.
“All the more for me, man! Have fun!”
“As if girls could ever want you!”
“Hey! Despite the fact that I’ve never really had a serious girl or anything that doesn’t make me-”
“Later, Weiss!”
He walked off to a corner of the library to a table where there was only girl sitting. Unlike the rest of the girls in the room, she was buried in her book and taking notes at an amazing speed. He recognised her. She was the girl from his history class who he had smiled at in class yesterday. Not that he had a chance to look at her properly, his breath caught in his throat. She had silky brown hair that fell over her shoulders that swayed gently with her hand movements. She had a creamy complexion and her face was gorgeous. She had a look of total concentration but even though her forehead was wrinkled in thought, she was still beautiful. There was no denying that. She almost looked like an angel. He approached the desk hesitantly.
“Anyone sitting here?”
“Hmm?” She finished writing and looked up and her eyes met his and he felt himself go weak at the knees. “What did you say?”
He tore his eyes away from hers. “Uh… is-is anyone sitting here?” He pointed to the seat to the right of her.
She shook her head. “No.” before she returned to her work and started writing again. He rolled his eyes at himself. As if a girl like her would ever want a guy like him. He sat down and got his books out and tried to continue studying but couldn’t. Not when he was sitting next to her. Everything about her was intriguing. The way she sat, the way she moved her eyes from her book to her notepad. He watched her hand move and he saw for the first time that she was writing so hard that she had practically torn holes through the paper. He looked at her face and saw that her frown was more than concentration, it looked like she was really pissed off about something. She looked at him and caught him staring at her.
“What?”
“You just look really bummed out.”
“It’s nothing. It’s just that… my life’s really complicated. More than you’d want to know.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t want to know.”
“I don’t know. Maybe the way that you stared at me for about 5 minutes before you actually sat down. Oh yeah, and it might have to do with something to do with how you’ve been staring at me for the past 10 minutes.”
He smiled. “Caught me. But you can’t talk, you know. You were staring at me the whole time during history yesterday.”
She smiled and he noticed that she got these really cute dimples in her cheeks. “Well, I guess that we both have a thing in common in that way.”
He smiled to himself and the two worked in silence for the next couple of minutes. But he couldn’t help thinking about what she had said. How much more did they have in common? Wouldn’t he love to talk to her and find more about this mysteriously beautiful girl.
“Are you dating anyone at the moment?” He had no idea where the question had come from. He had just blurted it out. She raised her eyebrows and looked at him.
“Five minutes and you’re already asking me about my love life.” She shrugged. “Must be a guy thing… I barely even know you.”
“You’ve experienced this before.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m Michael Vaughn. And you are?”
“Sydney Bristow.”
“Good, now that we know who we are talking to, you still haven’t answered my question. Are you dating anyone?”
She grinned. “Why, are you thinking of dating me?”
He chucked. He was liking Sydney more that each second that went by. “Subtle, aren’t you?”
“So, I’ve been told.”
“You still haven’t answered the question. Are you dating anyone?” She blushed and he noticed how cute she looked when she blushed. She smiled and looked down at her book.
“No.” She looked at her watch.
“Look, my next class starts in five minutes. I’d better go.” He grinned. She was obviously trying to avoid the topic.
“What class?”
“Maths.”
“With Miss Davis?” She nodded.
“Good, I’ll see you in class.”
“I guess so.” She shot him another smile that made his stomach turn before picking up her bag and heading out of the library. He was about to pick up his own bag when Weiss came up to him.
“You’re not escaping that easily, man. I saw the whole thing. And you were talking about not liking all the chick attention.” He shook his head in disbelief. “So anyway, who is she? What’s she like? Is she pretty? Stupid question, of course, she’s pretty.”
“Weiss, give me a break. Just because I have a two minute conversation with a girl doesn’t mean that she’s the love of my life or anything.” But his heart started beating faster at the thought of actually dating her. Weiss was looking at him and grinned.
“But you like her don’t you?” Michael started walking out of the library and Weiss called after him.
“You can’t escape this, you know. I have you number, I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!”
Michael just kept walking and thought of what he had done to deserve a best friend like Weiss.
********************************************
Sydney was one of the first to arrive to her Maths class. She sat down. Her head was full of thoughts; thoughts of Michael. It had seemed so natural to talk to him that she’d barely even noticed the way he looked when he talked, his laugh, the way he got some dimples when he smiled, the way that his eyes would brighten… ok maybe she had noticed, but she was thankful that she didn’t behave like a love struck giggly girl in front of him. She smiled when she thought of their conversation but her face hardened and her eyes narrowed when she remembered when she had asked her if she was all right. Truth was, she wasn’t. Her dad had never come back last night, and that morning she had gotten a text from him saying that he would be out of the country for the next fortnight. That meant an empty house for the next two weeks. She loved having the house to herself, but she just wished that her father would come out of his shell and truly start living. A voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Penny for your thoughts?” She looked up and felt herself melting. It was Michael. He sat down next to her and she suddenly felt conscious of herself and shy.
“Actually, five bucks would be better, I need money, I’m broke.” He laughed. Miss Davis came in and wrote the work up on the board. The room fell to silence as everyone took their books out and started working. Syd picked up her pen at the same time as Michael did and their hands brushed and a shot of electricity went up her arm. She jerked her hand back and Michael grinned at her.
“Happens all the time. I’m a lefty, comes from my dad.” For an instant his eyes filled with sadness and Syd wondered why but as soon as it had come it disappeared.
“You okay?” she asked him softly. He nodded and smiled. “I’m fine.”
“Miss Bristow, Michael Vaughn, save the chatter for outside the classroom please.”
“Yes, Miss Davis.” Sydney grinned at Vaughn before returning to her work. She found herself working well which was surprising since she was sitting so close to Michael, but the bell rang and she looked up surprised. The lesson seemed to have gone by so quickly. She picked up her bag and left the room to go to her locker but she sensed someone running behind her. She spun around and saw it was Michael. She smiled at him and waited for him to say something.
“Listen-uh, do you want to go get some pizza? I know this really good place, Joey’s Pizza.” For a second, she just gaped at him.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, what, is my company not good enough for you?” She blushed.
“I’d love to. Just let me get my bag. I’ll meet you outside.”
“Ok.” He shot her one of his knee-melting smiles and turned to go to his locker. Sydney stared after him before hurriedly throwing her books in her bag and slammed her locker door shut before running to Francie’s locker.
“Fran?”
“Oh, hey, Syd. Oh My God, you’re not gonna believe what happened in my English class, we-”
“FRAN!” Francie stopped talking and looked at Syd. “What’s up?”
“Michael. He asked me to go get pizza with him.” Francie’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide.
“You serious? Are we talking about Michael? Michael Vaughn?” Syd nodded.
Francie let out a squeal and hugged Sydney. “Way to go! Do you even know how lucky you are? How did this happen? How did you two get talking?”
“I talked to him in Study Period and in Maths… and then he just asked me.”
“You’re so lucky. But what’s wrong? Why are you upset?”
“What if I make a total fool of myself?”
“Syd, go.”
“NO!”
“You’re passing up a date with Michael Vaughn??”
“It’s not a date, but-” Francie pushed Syd in the direction of the door. “Go. You’ll be fine. And you’d better call me tonight!” Sydney walked down the corridor and out the double doors. She spotted Michael immediately who sent her a smile that made her stomach lurch and she gave him a tentative smile back.
“Ready to go?” She nodded and they started walking. Sydney looked around and saw that pretty much every girl on the grounds was looking at her with envy. And why shouldn’t they? She was going to get pizza with Michael Vaughn! She stole a glance at him and sighed. He looked at her.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just happy to be with you.” She gulped when the words came out but was relieved when Michael grinned back with that gorgeous smile of his. They fell into a comfortable silence until they were seated down. The waitress came to them.
“Hi, what would you like today?”
Michael and Sydney both looked at each other. “Pepperoni okay?” they both said as the same time. Sydney blushed. The waitress scribbled on her notepad.
“One pepperoni, got it.” She walked away and Michael spoke.
“You like pepperoni?”
“Uh-huh.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Really, you don’t seem like a pepperoni girl.” She looked at him.
“Then what kind of girl do I look like?” He shrugged.
“I don’t know.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her right ear and he chuckled when she did that.
“What?”
“That’s about the twentieth time you’ve don’t that today. It’s your thing.”
“I don’t have a thing.”
“Yes, you do.” (A/N: I stole that from that talk with Syd and Dixon.) “No one does that so much.”
“You have no idea what it’s like to have long hair, so you can’t talk.”
“True.” They were interrupted when the pizza came. They each took a slice and continued talking while eating.
“Tell me about your pets.”
She laughed. “What?”
“Your pets. I want to know about every pet you ever had.” (A/N: I stole that from their first date in episode 2.12)
“Okay. I haven’t had that many, but when I was about three I had a goldfish but it blew up.” He laughed. “It’s true! I think I overfed it or something, it like literally exploded!” He made a face.
“Eeew, not good when we’re eating, Syd.” She stared at him and he looked back.
“What?”
“You just called me Syd.”
“Is that a bad thing? Do you mind?”
She smiled. “Not at all.” They locked eyes but Sydney looked down and broke the moment. She’d never felt so attracted to anyone before and quickly started talking again. “Anyway, so I had this hamster once, but it got run over by a car or a truck or something. And I had a guinea-pig… but I don’t remember what happened to it.”
“What do you mean?”
She felt so comfortable talking to him that she had no trouble answering. She hardly ever talked about this with anyone except Francie. It just showed how attracted she was to him. She looked down and her voice came out just above a whisper. “That was around the time that my mother died.” She looked up and met Michael’s eyes and saw his filled with concern looking back at her. He took her hand and closed it over with his own.
“You don’t remember anything of that time. You feel like the whole world is going on but you don’t see why. You think that everyone should stop because your mother has died.” He had started whispering now and she stared at him, shocked and her eyes filled with tears.
“That’s exactly how I felt. How-how did you know.” His eyes once more filled with that sad look she had seen earlier that day and he looked down.
“My father died when I was little.” Her heart instantly went out to him. But now she didn’t know how to act because she’d never had anyone in the same situation like this. She asked him hesitantly.
“How old were you?” He looked back up.
“Eight.” He looked so sad that she wished she had never brought the topic up. He looked like an average 17 year old but she could see past that and she saw the eight year old boy inside him longing for his father.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought the topic up.” He managed a smile.
“Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault. Actually, I think that you would understand better than anyone because you’ve also lost a parent.” He saw the look on Sydney’s face and spoke quickly. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right.” She shook her head.
“Don’t be sorry, Michael.” She looked into his eyes and they locked eyes.
“I miss her,” she whispered.
“I miss him.” Sydney smiled and in that one moment, they understood more about the other than they ever thought they would. She found herself leaning closer to him and he was doing the same but the arrival of the waitress interrupted them and they sprang back and he let go off her hand. They looked sheepishly at each other.
“All finished up here?” Sydney nodded and put some money on the table and Michael did the same. They got up and thanked the waitress before heading outside.
“Where do you live?” he asked her.
“Martin Street.”
“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” Her whole body warmed up when he said that. They walked up the street and turned left on Martin Street. They kept walking until Sydney stopped in front of a pretty white house.
“Here we are.”
“I had fun.”
She smiled. “So did I. Thanks Michael.”
“I’ll see you in school tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
“Bye.”
“Bye.” He leaned toward her and gave her a chaste kiss on her cheek. Her eyes went wide. He smiled down at her and walked away. She could only stare after him in happy wonderment.
TBC
A/N: Whew! That was long! What do you think? Was the date too soon? Was the almost-kiss too soon? Did they open up about their feelings too much? Did you like it? Tell me!!
