A/N: Yes, I have indeed posted this on SD-1 but it's a bit of a ghost town there in the Sark section anymore so I decided that I'd post it here and see what happened. Thanks phi4858 for your review!
This is a bit of a long chapter so as always, Read, Enjoy and please Review!
Chapter 2
About 10 minutes later, Sydney heard a knock at her door and her mom telling her to hurry up, that they would be leaving for dinner in 5 minutes and to meet in the hall when she was done.
She finished putting her makeup on and looked in the full-length mirror.
"If Francie could see me now." Sydney said to her reflection. She was wearing a red tank top with a plain black zip up jacket and a black denim mini. She took one last look at her reflection, grabbed her purse and walked out into the hallway.
Her parents weren't out there yet, after standing there for a minute, she decided to see what her parents were up to. Also she wanted to see her dad's reaction to her outfit.
She knocked on the door "It's me!" she called. Irina opened the door and let her in.
"Don't you look nice!" Irina told her fully knowing why she was looking so nice after all, she is a mother.
Jack came out of the bedroom ready to go but when he saw Sydney, he grunted and said ,"Irina! Why is our daughter wearing that skirt? It's too short!"
"No Jack, it's fine, it's what 17 year old girls wear. "Irina scolded while giving Sydney a reassuring look, "Let the girl have her fun."
Sydney sighed in relief and also tried to hold in a laugh at the look on her dad's face when Irina told him to 'let her have her fun'.
They left the room and got into the elevator. There was already a guy in the elevator about Sydney's age who looked her over with interest.
"Hi, I'm Michael Vaughn." He told Sydney.
"I'm Sydney." She told him thinking God! What is it with this hotel? There are so many cute guys here and they all seem to be interested in me.'
"So," he started again wanting to talk to her again and possibly get a date, "Where are you from?" he asked.
'What is this guy some kind of stalker?' Jack thought and before Sydney could answer, he said "It is none of your business where she is from who do you think you are? You're acting like a stalker!"
"Dad!" Sydney groaned
"Jack!" Irina growled at him.
Michael looked somewhat scared and didn't say anything for the rest of the ride down to the lobby.
Sydney thought ' What is Dad's problem today? He's being such an a , he had no reason to do that, even though this Michael Vaughn guy is kind of annoying even after two sentences…'
The elevator finally got to the ground floor, they got out and Michael took Sydney aside.
Jack saw this and gave Vaughn a death glare, he was about to go over to him and knock some sense into him when Irina caught him and made him walk with her over to the Lazareys.
"Sydney, I know we have known each other for like only 5 minutes but would you go to a ball, it's for my dad's work, he's an ambassador, with me?" he asked hopefully.
"Umm," Sydney told him looking around, feeling someone's eyes on her, she found it was Julian and he looked hott.
"Sydney?" asked Vaughn seeing that she was not paying attention.
"Oh, sorry but I can't I'm going to be busy." She told him, but her mind was already somewhere else.
Vaughn walked away looking disappointed.
'Oh God, he definitely caught me looking at him in the elevator.' She thought while trying really hard not to blush.
0
15 minutes earlier in Julian's hotel room…
'Hmm' Julian thought looking at himself in the bathroom mirror inspecting his hair, 'more gel? No.' he asked and answered himself.
He had already put some in to make his hair look like what girls called and thought was cute "bed head" , but he hated when he had too much gel in his hair and it got to feel crunchy, he already suspected he had put in too much anyway.
'Good enough' he told himself stepping back from the mirror examining his whole outfit-he had to admit-he looked good.
He never usually wore gel or took this long getting ready but he was trying to catch Sydney off-balance. He could pull it off easily too, he was wearing faded looking jeans and a dark blue button up shirt.
Taking one last look in the mirror to make sure that he looked perfect and grabbed his room key. Walking out into the hall where his parents were waiting for him, immediately met with his mother making a face at his hair, his father seeing this, barked at him," Go fix your hair, it looks messy and you know how your mother hates it!"
"No father, this is the way I want it and this is how it is going to stay." He told his dad stalking off toward the elevator fully expecting glares and comments about his hair for the rest of the night.
Julian stood in the lobby enduring constant glares from his father while they waited for the Bristow's to get there, just then he heard the "Ding" of the elevator and he turned to look at who was getting out. ' They're finally here, I can't see her though-Oh- her father is looking at that guy like he wants him dead' Julian thought while observing Jack giving a death glare to a guy who looked very scared but pulled Sydney aside anyway,
'I can see her now-Oh- I guess she caught me looking at her legs in the elevator. With that outfit it will be hard to mess with her head.' He noticed how the guy from the elevator was asking her something, 'is he asking her out? She looks like she's actually considering it'
Then much to Julian's surprise , after glancing around for a minute she looked straight at him, her eyes got wide for a second, then turned to look at who Julian had dubbed 'Elevator guy' she said something to him and he walked off looking defeated.
'Well maybe it won't be as hard as I thought to mess with her head' Julian thought.
They ended up walking to a restaurant off Bourbon Street called ' The Gumbo Shop' .
Finally at dinner while waiting for the food to come, Sydney decided to break the ice and say something.
"So, Julian, where are you from, how old are you, and what is your favorite movie?" she asked all in one breath.
'Oops, I guess I should have stopped at where are you from.' Sydney thought nervously. But to her surprise, he answered all of them.
"Ok," he said, stopping to think for a minute, "London, England; seventeen; The Sting" he replied all in one breath, to irritate her she was sure, "You?"
Sydney groaned inwardly, ' I should have seen this coming, but what is my favorite movie?'
"I'm from L.A.; I am seventeen; and I don't have a favorite movie, but if I had to pick…" she said.
"Which you have to." Julian interrupted/added.
Sydney looked at him annoyed at him for interrupting her, she continued "As I was saying, that I would pick an action movie but just to be on the safe side, it's a tie between 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Eurotrip'.
Seeing Julian roll his eyes at her long answer she defensively told him, "Well you're the one who asked."
"No it wasn't that what I was rolling my eyes at, it was you're choice of movies."
"What? Lawrence of Arabia is a classic! And Eurotrip is really funny!"
"Eurotrip is a stupid movie though."
"Have you even watched it?" Sydney asked suspiciously.
"Well no, but…"
"Then how do you know? To actually form an opinion of the movie you actually have to watch it!"
"Fine but what do you expect me to do? Go rent it from somewhere?"
"No, there's actually no need to you can borrow it from me because I brought it with me."
"You brought it with you?" Julian asked not believing that someone would bring a DVD as stupid as that on vacation with them.
They continued arguing until the food came and even after. The 'Parents' were watching them argue as they were talking with each other. Irina in particular thought it was very amusing.
When they were all done with their meals, the waitress came by to clean up and ask if they wanted any dessert.
"Sydney? Do you want cheesecake to take back to the hotel with you? I know you didn't finish your sandwich-and I don't blame you-it was huge but it's vacation after all." Irina asked Sydney.
"Yeah mom I love cheesecake." Sydney replied to her mom.
"One slice of cheesecake to go, and do you know where you can get a good Flaming Hurricane around here?" Irina asked the waitress.
"Well they aren't allowed to set drinks on fire any more but…"
Outside the bar that the waitress had suggested, the 'Parents' told Sydney and Julian to wait outside, when they came back Sydney asked "Can I walk back to the hotel? I'm feeling tired and I have a date with a large slice of cheesecake." She did not want to witness her parents consume large amounts of alcohol and take them back to the hotel with people giving her weird looks.
"Well honey-"Irina started
"No, I'm sorry Sydney, but I don't want you to walk these streets alone." Jack told her eyeing the bums walking around and huddled in groups.
"Excuse me sir but what if I took her back I am kind of tired too." Julian asked him also sharing Sydney's feelings about somewhat drunk parents.
Jack was caught between saying yes and no, he was suspicious of the boy taking Sydney back all by themselves but he did use 'Sir'. As Jack was musing over this, Irina perked up and told them to go.
" I think I'll even force Julian to watch Eurotrip with me." Sydney said with a mischievous look on her face.
"Have fun!" Shanna told them.
"But not too much fun!" Jack added.
Sydney and Julian walked off in the direction of the hotel.
"Thanks for taking me back to the hotel, I just don't want to end up with the responsibility of getting them back to the hotel and people giving me strange looks."
"I get the feeling." Julian told her.
"Whoa!" shrieked Sydney who tripped on the sidewalk edge, but before she could hit the ground, Julian caught her and hauled her back up.
"If I didn't know better I'd say that you were the drunk one." Julian told her smirking.
"It's not my fault that I'm clumsy!"
"Well that's not really true is it? I mean you're the one who tripped and almost fell! And who caught you? You didn't even say thank you!" Julian said acting hurt.
"Thank you Julian." Sydney told him "happy now?"
"You don't sound like you mean it." Julian replied sarcastically.
"You know that you can be a pain in the a sometimes right?"
"I can't believe that you would say that!" Julian said smirking yet again, "and to the man who saved you from falling of a sidewalk and making a complete idiot of yourself-and also from smashing your cheesecake."
"Fine!" Sydney told him as they were entering the lobby to their hotel.
As they were getting ready to press the elevator call button , the doors opened and Michael Vaughn/ Elevator Guy walked out, he saw Sydney laughing and Julian alongside her smirking. He scowled at them both and walked away.
They got into the elevator and Sydney pushed the 5 button, and then leaned back on the rail shaking her head and smiling.
"Who was that guy who scowled at us? I recognize him from before dinner, it looked like he asked you out." Julian asked.
"Oh, I met him in the elevator and he told me he was Michael Vaughn and asked me where I was from, then dad just flipped and accused him of being a stalker, the guy looked like he was so scared he was going to piss his pants and then he had the nerve to pull me aside and ask me to a ball. He was really annoying too, cowardly and it seemed like he thought he was God's gift to women and I guess he's pissed at me for saying no to him- bet he's never got rejected in his life either.." Sydney explained.
"Hmm.." mumbled Julian, who was thinking about what Sydney said about the ball, "what ball was it exactly?" he asked.
"All he said was that it was for his dad's work of being an ambassador."
'Well lucky me I get to see him at the stupid ball mother is making me attend.. maybe I can take her and we could piss him off even more..'
The elevator stopped and they got out.
"So, are you going to take me up on my offer?" Sydney asked him referring to borrowing Eurotrip.
"Yeah, sure I'll borrow it." Julian told her.
He trailed Sydney to her room and went in with her. He looked around while she dug through her suitcase.
"Here it is." She said handing the DVD to him.
"Thanks, um..do you want to watch it with me?" he asked
"Ok" Sydney answered happily she was hoping that he would ask that.
A while later, they were watching it and Sydney was eating her cheesecake in her PJ's , and Sydney had noted that he did smile and laugh a few times, but she also noticed him glancing at her cheesecake every so often.
"Do you want a bite?" she asked him.
"Well I don't want to take any of your precious cheesecake but yeah.. I do want a bite."
"Ok hold on let me find another fork.." she said rolling off the bed to dig through her purse.
Julian watched her dig through her purse and took this time to check her out. She looked up and saw him looking at her again, and she said " I found a fork and why are you looking at me like that?"
"I just noticed that you must work out or something because you have toned arms." He said lied smoothly, reaching for the plastic fork.
"yeah dad makes me go to fight lessons so I can defend myself but he still doesn't completely trust my skills yet even though I had to switch teachers twice because I surpassed them, now watch the movie!"
Julian obeyed and didn't say anything again until the movie was over.
"Well thanks for the movie and cheesecake, I hate to admit it but you were right it was a funny movie-stupid-but funny."
'Julian you're not supposed to be eating cheesecake! You're supposed to be messing with her head!' Julian scolded himself .
She walked him to the door and said goodnight, and before he left, he planted a feather like kiss on her lips and before she could respond, walked away.
Sydney sighed and closed the door I will never understand guys- ever,
And deciding that it was too late to call Francie, she went to bed.
'That should keep her guessing for a while now..' Julian thought as he walked away. 'Now I need to figure out a way to get mom to let me take her to the ball.'
He just found his room key when his parents got back.
"Julian where were you?" Shanna asked him concerned
"I was in Sydney's room watching a movie remember?"
"Oh, yes I forgot, also I've been meaning to ask you, do you want to invite Sydney to come to the ball with us tomorrow?"
"Are you sober?" Julian asked thinking it was too easy, he thought he would at least have to ask her.
"What kind of question is that? Julian you know that I never get drunk!"
"Just…checking.."
"Ok, now go get some sleep and don't forget to ask Sydney about the ball tomorrow."
'Hell, she must have made great friends with Irina..' was his last thought before dropping off to sleep.
