Part One:

The class was silent at his request.

"Well?" Michael asked again, this time leaning back against the edge of his desk. He stared at a few students willing someone to answer him.

The class remained silent, still.

Michael's hesitancy grew a little. "You realise, that if we continue the class like this, then we'll have to make it up, say, in your lunch hour?" He reasoned while folding his arms across his chest giving an appearance of no tolerance.

A smirk appeared on Sydney's face. She didn't mind either way what would happen. She didn't have many people to spend the lunch hour with anyway.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the brown-haired girl smirk. "How about you? Are you willing to share with me where you are up to in 'MacBeth'?" Michael asked pushing himself up and walking towards her desk.

"Sir? She doesn't talk." A girl called out from the other side of the class.

Michael's head shot up and over to the girl who'd shouted and back down to the brunette in front of him. What he found when he looked down was her copy of MacBeth opened to the first page of Act III, Scene 1.

Startled, he stumbled over his words. "Uh, thanks. Um, everyone open up to Act three, scene one." He said glancing down at Sydney once more before walking over to his briefcase to retrieve his copy.

Throughout the remaining half-hour of class, Michael kept one eye on the brunette in the front row and one on the rest of the class. Only listening to his students with half an ear, he realised he didn't even know her name and he was already intrigued by her.

Being distracted beyond belief, it was only by the loud giggling and laughing that had told him class was over and he still had a few more that day. He quietly watched as his students left the classroom in pairs or larger groups. The last to leave, alone, was the brunette in the front row. As she rounded out of the classroom a folded piece of paper slipped out of the folder she held at her side. He quickly snatched it up off the ground intending to return it to her, but when he looked up, she was already lost in the swarm of pubescent teens racing to their next class.

He unfolded the note and was faced with his first caricature. He slipped the note into his briefcase as the first students of his next class tumbled inside.

It wasn't until 4:30 that afternoon that Michael Vaughn was able to leave school. As he packed up his briefcase and rubbed the board, ridding it of his last class's notes, he picked up his briefcase and headed out the door towards the staff parking lot.

"Good afternoon Michael." Sarah the receptionist called out as he walked past the admin area.

"Have a good night Sarah." He called out sending a small wave and a grin in her direction.

Making his way through the front doors he spotted his car surrounded by other staff cars and a lone figure sitting near the exit gate, head buried in a book. He slowly walked towards his car parked only a few metres away from the lone figure.

Approaching the boot of his car he recognised the figure as the brunette from the front row of his first English class. Walking around to the driver's side of the car, he placed his briefcase on the back seat. After closing the door he walked round the car and towards the exit; towards her.

"Um, do you need a ride?" He asked as he cautiously approached her.

Sydney whipped her head up at the intrusion. She'd been so enthralled in her book that she hadn't even noticed him at his car or heard his footfalls as they approached her.

Her eyes widened in recognition as they fell upon his green ones.

"You can just shake your head yes or no." He offered with a small smile.

She looked up at him confused for a few seconds before realising he'd asked her if she'd like a lift. That was a definite no. She shook her head vehemently before burying her nose back into her book.

Taken aback by the nature of her decline, he mentally shrugged his shoulders before returning back to his car. He glanced back at her once more before entering his car and driving past her through the exit.

As she'd buried her head in her book once again, she watched discreetly as his tall form moved along the cement parking lot towards his car. She averted her eyes before he took a glance back at her. But as he settled in his car and drove out of the parking lot heading for home, she watched him until his car was no longer visible to her anymore.

Michael pushed the door open to his three bedroom, two-story home. He heard the scuffle of feet coming from the lounge area and childish giggling before a loud and high-pitched "DADDY!" was heard.

Michael quickly dropped his briefcase just in time to hold his arms out to catch his son as he barrelled him over.

"I missed you today." Michael said holding his son tight to his chest.

"Miss too." His son replied snuggling his head in the crook of Michael's neck.

Standing up while keeping his son in the embrace he spotted a figure standing near the lounge room entrance. "He was ok right?" He asked, hope blaring in his eyes.

"Of course… He wanted his daddy for a little while earlier but he was ok after his nap." The person replied.

"Thank you so much Becca. Sorry I was a bit late." Michael said apologising whole-heartedly.

"Don't worry about it. You know I love Matty. Plus, the money's great." Becca said with a grin as she walked up to the pair and kissed Matty on the head before grabbing her coat and slipping her arms inside. "I'll be here at 8:00am tomorrow. Try to be ready this time." And with that she was out the door with a grin and a wave and in her car jet-setting off down the quiet street.

After laying Matty down to sleep later on that evening, Michael sat at his desk organising the next day's lessons. Reaching blindly into his briefcase, his fingers stumbled across the folded note that had fallen out of the brunette's folder that morning.

"I have got to stop calling her 'the brunette'." Michael said to himself as he began to re-open the note that held the caricature.

It was the image of the girl drooling that had caught his attention first. Her enormously large ears and the pool of drool at her feet amused him only slightly. He noticed the elongated forehead and he was offended. Being one that had a particularly larger forehead than most, he took offence. He looked at himself and noticed the chalk stains on his pants and the coffee mention on his back and an idea struck him, but he held onto it until he had inspected the caricature further.

His eyes slowly rolled over the paper, the title attracting his attention. 'Sydney Bitch-tow – Dream on!' Michael frowned at the last name the artist had given her. Curious as to her real surname he reached for the papers in his briefcase searching for the class list of the seniors in his first class. Pulling the class list into view he scrolled the first few names locating a Sydney Bristow. After further inspection he deduced that she was the only Sydney and therefore it was certain that Bitch-tow was Bristow.

Michael pondered all the information he'd gathered so far. The note fell out 'the brunette's' folder, but it was certain she didn't draw it and the name on the note was of a Sydney and the only Sydney that was in his first period English class was Bristow. "This girl is a mystery." Michael said out loud now having possibly learnt her name, before shaking his head.