Angeles

Note: This is my new fic, which I first posted under another penname. It's just an AU Alias, and focuses more on the people than the plot. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

"I'm telling you, Francie, today has been the worst day ever," Sydney sighed, plopping down on the couch in their apartment.

Francie sat down next to Sydney with a look of sympathy on her face. "Oh, sweetie…what's wrong?" she asked. Sydney put her hands on her face and then ran them through her hair as she groaned.

"First off, Professor Anderson gave me a C minus on my paper on the authenticity of Shakespeare," Sydney said, folding her arms, a clear pout on her face.

"The one you worked on for ages?" Francie said, remembering all the sleepless nights Sydney had while working on the paper.

Sydney nodded in agreement, sniffed, and then went back to telling Francie about her day. "Yeah, and then I bumped into some asshole from my American Lit. class, and spilled coffee all over my new skirt which I was going to wear to my interview. And then he blamed me for the reason he was late to some stupid date," Sydney complained.

Francie rubbed her shoulder, trying to comfort her agitated best friend. "Oh, Syd. I'm sorry…"

"And to top it all off, my dad wants to have dinner tonight. With me." Sydney leaned her head back on the couch pillow and sighed. "Fran, I don't want to see him…"

"I know how you feel about your dad, Syd…but maybe it would be nice to see him just this once." At the suggestion, Sydney glared at Francie, who laughed unsurely. "Forget I said anything. Hey, I have an idea."

Sydney tiredly sat up. "What?" she asked, and a large grin came to Francie's face.

"Well, you have a few hours until dinner with the grinchinator, right?" Francie asked, and Sydney smiled at the name Francie gave to her father. She nodded in reply, and Francie continued. "I was thinking…maybe we could invite Will over and have a chick flick marathon. This is totally the night for that," Francie smiled.

Suddenly, Sydney's frustration and anxiety seemed to melt away. She loved her friends so much. "Okay, let's call Will," she agreed.

Two hours later, popcorn and wrappers were strewn across the floor, My Best Friend's Wedding was playing on the small TV, and the three friends were laughing over their high school yearbook.

"Oh, and remember him? Johnny Gap-Tooth?" Will pointed to a picture and his friends laughed.

"Do you have names for everyone?" Sydney asked, and Francie rolled her eyes.

"Believe me, he does…" Francie said, and they started to laugh again.

Sydney sighed, leaning on Will's shoulder. "I can't believe that high school was only a little more than a year ago…" Sydney trailed off. "I can't say I miss it," she smiled.

Francie tucked some hair behind her ear. "I liked it," she commented, and both Sydney and Will groaned.

"That was because you were dating Hank Winters, the quarterback," Sydney told Francie, who rolled her eyes. "It was surprising you even acknowledged our presence," she pointed to herself and Will.

"Oh, please, you weren't that unpopular," Francie shrugged. Sydney and Will gave her looks, and then she broke down in giggles. "Okay, okay…I guess…but there was something about you guys that was awesome and I'm glad I didn't miss that."

"Aw, Francie, we love you too," Sydney gave her friend a hug. She noticed her watch and her eyes widened. "Shit, I'm going to be late for dinner. I need to get ready."

Will got up, leaving the yearbook on the couch and walking over to the kitchen to put the popcorn bowl away. "Are you going to dinner with Danny?" he asked.

"No, my dad is forcing me to go to dinner with him," Sydney called from her bedroom as she quickly got dressed. "It sucks, I know."

Shrugging, Will returned to his place on the couch. "Why don't you just tell him you can't go?"

Sydney came out of her room, buttoning her shirt. "Because he pays for my college tuition, and since I'm only a sophomore I need help paying my way through college," she explained.

"Oh," Will replied, but said nothing more. Francie came and sat down next to him,

"Well, Will and I will just sit here and watch more chick flicks," she said, leaning against her friend, who gave a small laugh.

"No, I can't take any more Julia Roberts," he said, but when Francie looked at him with a pout, he rolled his eyes. "I can't believe how much I let you guys abuse me."

Laughing, Sydney picked up her purse and made sure that everything was in it: Wallet, cell phone, keys. She sighed, ready to go. "Okay guys, I'm off," she said, and her friends waved goodbye to her.

As she closed the door to her apartment, she silently wished that this dinner would be short and sweet.

They had been sitting there for an hour and a half and neither had said anything far from, "Pass the rolls," or "I heard the pasta primavera is delicious." Sydney kept looking at her watch, hoping that the torture would be over soon. She felt as if she were sitting underneath an interrogation light, and every so often she had to remind herself that it was only her father sitting before her.

"So, Sydney…what are you majoring in again?" her father, Jack Bristow, asked, taking a sip of his wine.

"Biomolecular physics," Sydney answered, and a confused look came to Jack's face. "Dad, I was just kidding. I'm majoring in English."

Her father nodded. "Oh. Interesting," he said. Sydney sighed, looking over to another table. She noticed someone sitting there.

"Oh, hey, is that Dixon?" she asked, and Jack looked over to the side. Marcus Dixon had been a longtime family friend of Bristows, and worked in the same bank that Sydney's father did.

"Yes, I believe that is," Jack said, staring back at his food. Sydney waved to her friend, who noticed her and waved back.

Sydney turned back to her father. "When are we going to have dinner with his family next?" she asked, and Jack looked up from his meal.

"Next week, maybe?" he answered. "Oh, Sydney, we're having dinner with Arvin and Emily on Saturday. It's Emily's birthday."

"I remembered, dad,"

"Oh."

Awkward silence passed for the next fifteen minutes, and Sydney thought that she was going to go soon.

"Dad, I have to go," she said, standing up. "It's been…nice."

He nodded, and then looked up to her, the makings of a smile on his face. "I'll see you Saturday."

"I can't wait." Her answer was part sarcastic, part serious. She wanted to see Emily: it was the other two that she disliked. She sighed, put her coat on while her father asked for the check. "See you later, dad."

"Danny!" Sydney giggled, running up to a tall, dark haired man. "What are you doing tonight?" she asked.

He smiled, looking down at her. The two were walking across the green of the college, Sydney trying to hold all of her textbooks and Danny carrying a cup of coffee. Danny was graduating medical school that year, and Sydney wondered how she was ever lucky enough to get a boyfriend like him.

"I don't know, I was considering going to bed early," he smiled. "What did you have in mind?"

Sydney grinned. "Well…Francie did tell me of this really awesome sounding party tonight…" she trialed off, looking up at him with wide eyes, and then a grin spread across her features. "Please?"

He smiled, and then leaned down to kiss her. "Anything for you, Syd."

She gave a small giggle, and then looked at her watch. "Shit! I'm late for my criminology class!" she exclaimed, and then gave him a quick kiss. "Meet me at my apartment at seven," she told him, and then ran off.

When she finally got to the fourth floor, she was panting. Why did her criminology class had to be on the highest floor? She looked at her watch again. Shit, shit, shit! I'm so fucking late! In truth, she was at most fifteen minutes late. Quietly she sneaked into the large lecture hall where her professor was talking about sociopaths and the psychological motives behind a murder.

Sitting down and taking her notebook out of her over-packed backpack, she heard some whimpers. In the row next to hers, a blonde girl was sitting there, tears running down her face. Sydney knew who this was: it was Rachel Gibson, a freshman. The two had run into each other before.

After an hour and a half of class, Sydney packed her things back up and waited for Rachel to get out of her seat. Sydney could see Rachel wiping her eyes, and when the blonde girl got to Sydney's row, Sydney stepped out at started to talk to her.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked, and Rachel sniffed and nodded.

"Sorta."

Sydney put her hand around Rachel's shoulders. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

Rachel gave a slight laugh. "I just have a backstabbing friend and a dickhead of an ex-boyfriend. Recent ex-boyfriend. Like…broke up with me right before this class ex-boyfriend…"

Sighing, Sydney gave Rachel a hug. She felt bad for the younger girl, and then had an idea. "Hey, my friend told me of something cool tonight…a party. I'm going with some friends, and maybe you'd want to come too. You might meet a new guy…" Sydney gave a huge smile.

Sniffing again, Rachel looked up at Sydney. "Okay," she said slightly reluctantly. "I'll give it a try."

Sydney smiled at her. "That's great! Okay, my apartment is on South Border Street, right next to the Ames Building. It's 19 South Border Street, apartment number five. Stop by at seven, and we'll get going! This is going to be great."

The younger blonde nodded and gave Sydney a teary smile. "I guess," she said, and Sydney grinned happily, then looking at her watch.

"Oh, shit, I have to go! Ugh, how is it that I'm always late for class?" she asked herself, sprinting from the building and out into the courtyard, attempting to get to her next class.

Sydney didn't remember until she ran halfway across campus that her American Literature class had been moved back to the building next to the one she had just left. She groaned, running her hands through her hair, and then started back. Halfway back, she decided to screw getting there on time and went to the coffee stand.

"Yeah, I'd like a small cup of coffee," she told the person at the stand, who then handed her the coffee.

As she accepted her coffee, another student already at the stand turned and almost collided with her.

"Hey, watch it," she growled. Before, she might have apologized, but ever since she got coffee spilled on her the day before she was feeling much less courteous. "Wait a minute…" she said as she noticed something. "You're the guy from yesterday!"

Standing next to her with a slightly bewildered look on his face and an unnerving grin was the blonde freshman from the day before.

He spoke, and Sydney noticed the twinge of a British accent in his voice. "I don't know what you're talking about…" he spoke, and Sydney felt like slapping him when he started to look her up and down.

"You spilled coffee all over me yesterday. Right here. Right about this time. And then yelled at me about the reason why you were late for your date," she explained, taking a sip of her coffee.

His face had a very apologetic look, but Sydney could sense his underlying smirk. "I apologize."

Sydney sighed, and realized that she was already extremely late for class. "Shit," she swore. "I have to go. Sorry about all this," she quickly told him, and started to walk toward the building where her American Literature class was being held. It wasn't until she almost got to the building when she looked behind her and realized that the blonde freshman was following her.

Okay, that's not weird at all, she thought, until she remembered that he was in her American Literature class. Great. I have to spend more time with him.

She opened the door to the building, holding it open for him. He smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes, walking toward her classroom, first throwing out her half-drunken coffee. Before she went into her classroom, she noticed the blonde freshman directly behind her.

"Um…hi?" she said, and he smiled.

"What a coincidence," he walked into the classroom. Sydney looked down at her watch. She was at least ten minutes late. After the freshman went into the classroom, she followed him and took her seat.

At the front of the classroom, Sydney noticed a change. Her usual teacher, Professor Cooper, was not there. Instead, there was a much younger, much more handsome man in front.

It seemed that the new teacher noticed the arrival of the two students and with a slight smile he introduced himself. "Hey, guys…I'm Michael Vaughn…I'm actually a French teacher here, but Professor Cooper is going to be in the hospital for a while and until they can find a proper replacement, I'm the only one qualified to teach this course."

The class wasn't any more interesting than it usually was. That wasn't saying much, because the class was always very interesting. Sydney, however, spent the whole class trying to read her new teacher. She hadn't seen him before, and wondered what he was like. Something about him fascinated her. Maybe it was his youth. Maybe it was the fact that he was actually a French teacher with a degree in English. Whatever it was, it completely captured her interest.

Once in a while she looked over at the blonde freshman who had almost spilled coffee on her a second time. She noticed his gaze sometimes wandered in her direction, and something about him unnerved her.

When class was over, she stood up and put her books back into her bag. She heard footsteps of students walking out of the classroom, and then noticed someone standing next to her. It was the freshman again. She rolled her eyes, wishing that he'd just go away.

"Hello," he introduced himself. "I'm Julian Sark."

She gave an unsure smile. "Sydney Bristow."

"Sorry about before," he apologized again. "I was in a hurry, just was you were."

Sighing, she looked at Professor Vaughn and then back at Sark. "Yeah, that's great. No problem. You know, I have to go," she walked out into the aisle and then down to the front of the classroom until she reached where Professor Vaughn was.

"Hey," she smiled at him. He paused from erasing the blackboard to look at her. He smiled, and put the eraser down.

"Hey," he said in reply.

She adjusted her backpack on her shoulders, still looking at him. "I'm sorry I was late," she bit her lip. "I forgot that the class was moved, and then this jackass almost spilled coffee over me," she explained.

He smiled. "It's no problem. I'd appreciate it if you weren't late again, though," he told her, and she nodded.

"Yeah, of course, sorry…" she trailed off, looking around. "I'm Sydney Bristow," she stuck her hand out. He looked at in, and then took it,

"Michael Vaughn," he answered. "But you already knew that."

She smiled, and then continued to ask questions. "How long are you going to be teaching this course?"

"About four to eight weeks."

"Oh, that sounds good," she said. He nodded, and then went back to erasing the board. She stood there for a moment, and then decided that she probably shouldn't wait any longer.

"Well, I'll see you a little later," she gave a small wave to him, and he nodded.

She sighed, knowing that she probably just annoyed him. As she left the classroom, she didn't notice the smile that had appeared on Michael Vaughn's face.

End of the first chapter! Please review. Constructive criticism is welcomed.