Windstar: Wow! Thanks to all of my fantastic reviewers, I really appreciate it, and it means so much to me! You guys are awesome and your encouragement is great!
This chapter was originally twenty one pages long...and then I split it up into three. So forgive the rather choppy ending, it was originally much longer. Thank you so much once more, and I hope you enjoy this...mini arc...
Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Of Schools and Parties:
October 28, 1995 - November 16, 1995
One month after Nick had teasingly proposed to her, Alex found herself with a ring on her finger and a laughing teenager who couldn't seem to stop once he saw her face. It was terribly late at night, and he had school the next day – but he refused to go to sleep until they had a chat. That was when he presented his…present…and they'd been talking ever since. "You're determined to continue this joke aren't you?" She asked him with raised eyebrows.
"It's just a bit of fun." He agreed harmlessly. "Just wait, for your birthday I'll make you a certificate." She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"You do realize that you're still underage right?"
"Legally I could do you anytime I wanted to…Miss Eighteen…as for getting married – I'll up the date. I'm only a few more months away anyway. By the way, what is your real name? It's not Alexandra Hunter." She tilted her head slightly.
"Why would you think that?"
"Because you've lied about everything else, why would Alex be your real name?"
"Because I like it?"
"That's even more reason why it's not your real name."
"You don't like your name?" He shrugged.
"Nick's common."
"And you don't like the common?" He sent her a wicked smile and leaned forward.
"Of course not- I like you don't I?" She knew she was blushing, but she forced herself to roll her eyes instead of react much more then that. He was just being the casual flirt that he always was.
She couldn't exactly keep the smile completely off her face though, and she knew that he saw the fact that she had been charmed by him. He grinned in that self-satisfaction way that he always did whenever he knew that he had gotten her good.
"Don't you have any other girls that you like? Kids at school must be all over you." Nick's smile faltered ever so slightly and he shrugged.
"Not really, and besides...that's different."
"Different how?"
"Because they're not real." She frowned, not certain she was following him. So he continued. "The kids at school, they see me and sure, they see how undeniably good looking I am."
"You're so modest." She rolled her eyes at his ego trip and he winked before turning serious again.
"They see money, and art, and talent…and they see… 'Nick Halden, playboy extraordinaire.'" She wasn't quite sure where he was going with this and she didn't quite seem capable of following. He raised his eyebrows at her. "What do you see when you see me? How would you describe me?"
"Funny, a capricious flirt, smart, handsome…friendly, kind, brave, adorable-"
"You think I'm adorable?" He started laughing and his face looked honestly happy by her words.
"Who wouldn't?" He waved his hand as though he were proving his point through her. "Your friends at school?"
"Not really friends if they don't know who I am..." There was more there, and she frowned slightly. He looked oddly sad for a moment and she wasn't quite sure why. He shook his head though and sent her a smile, and she decided not to press it. Instead she moved onwards.
"Just because they don't think you're adorable, they don't know you?"
"No, because they can't tell me what my favorite pastime is. They can't tell me what my favorite food is. They can't tell me what I like to do for fun, or what type of music I listen to…they can't tell me my parent's names or even do they know that my mother is sick. They're not the type of people to stick up for me either if I was in trouble."
"Have you bothered to try to tell them?" Nick tilted his head.
"Tell them what? They don't listen. They don't care. They want to know how to get girls, and the girls want to get laid. None of that has to do anything to do with me as a person."
"So why do you act the way you do then? People see how you act as who you are. You flirt with every girl with two legs, if you didn't want people to think you're a bubble head, why do you?"
"Because after a while, what difference does it make? Sometimes you almost want to know how far you can go and what you can do. Everyone treats me like I can get whatever I want. So I see if I actually can. And when I get in trouble, I see how I can get out of it. When girls spend their entire time trying to have sex with you, wouldn't you eventually stop trying to have a conversation with them? When friends already have a preconceived notion of how it is you're supposed to act...wouldn't you eventually stop trying to be any different?"
"And me?"
"You haven't been trying to screw me since day one, and you haven't tried to change me in anyway. This…" He motioned at the space between them. He motioned at the ring he gave her. "This is just harmless flirting, it's like a dance." He smiled at her, and she nodded.
"You flirt, I flirt?"
"Haven't you been flirting back?" And she hated to admit it, but she had. If she hadn't been, she wouldn't have begun to sit so close to him. She wouldn't keep holding his hand when they went out. She wouldn't begin to feel the urge to return the kisses on the cheeks or she wouldn't be sitting up until three in the morning talking to him for no reason whatsoever.
She felt her breath leave her. The realization dawning on her in a swift burst. She could hardly believe it. It had barely been a month…just one month and her heart had been stolen by this boy. In just one month he had somehow managed to captivate her, and it wasn't just his charming looks or his God-given talent…it was his person.
He was smart and funny, and generous. He was kind. He was loving. He had a heart as big as the moon. He was the most entertaining person she had ever met. He was humorous to be around. And she found, with great stupefaction…that she loved him.
"Well, you're always going to be my Blue-Eyes." She agreed shamelessly. She wasn't dumb enough to believe that he wouldn't figure out what she was saying eventually. It didn't make any difference to her whether or not he knew either. Most likely, he wouldn't care considering he'd pointed the fact out to her.
"Your Blue-Eyes?" He asked with a grin.
"What can I say, I'm possessive." She shrugged and laughed.
"Of course you are." He shook his head and stood up. He stretched slightly and started to make his way back to the door to head to his own room, when he paused and glanced over his shoulder. "I do have a friend though. A real one – who isn't you."
"A real one huh?"
"Yeah, I'm not making him up – I swear." He rolled his eyes. "His name's Moz. Or at least that's what Ma and I call him."
"Moz?"
"Mmhmm, he used to do jobs with my dad. Made the worst babysitter in the world – the things that guy'll tell you."
"Sounds like he's a bit older then you are."
"Sure, about ten years or so – that's why he's not around much. He's off doing his own thing."
"You don't talk about him."
"Of course not," He leaned in close to her as though divulging in a secret. "Moz is a bit paranoid…he does not approve of casual droppings of his name – you never know if someone's listening." She laughed at that.
"Sounds like a friend of mine."
"You have a paranoid friend too?"
"Yeah, he's the one that sent me your way."
"I'd love to meet this friend of yours someday."
"Maybe you will."
They fell into a familiar habit after that day. She'd wake up when she heard his alarm going off in the next room over. Instead of lying in bed though, she'd get up and make breakfast. He'd tease her about being a perfect little 'wifey' and give her a kiss on the cheek before running out to go to school.
She'd head out on the town after cleaning up the house and talking with a newly awakened Maire for a bit. She'd do her rounds, pick a few pockets, and find a new mark. By the time that she had jotted down her information, she'd head over to his high school and wait for him to get let out.
She supposed that it was morbid curiosity, but she wanted to see what the handsome and well loved boy looked like in his own environment and if he really was telling the truth about his current friend status. She didn't doubt that it was a lie, but she couldn't quite understand what it would look like.
If he supposed that was her reasoning, he never let on. He'd exit the building with a carefree smile, immediately meet her eyes and wave. She'd wave back and then wait for him to cross the street to get to her. He'd always leave the school by himself and it didn't seem that many people even noticed that he existed.
It made her sad, in truth. She'd look across the street and watch the countless kids rush from the building, and there would be the most beautiful of them all…and he'd be walking alone. It didn't seem right, and in fact she found herself questioning the sanity of the youth of today. Nick Halden moved and walked with a grace that was admirable for someone so young, and it seemed that all it did was garner him the ability to be a ghost. People seemed to look straight through him, and never know he was there – and yet he was. She could see him clearly. She could see him, and all of his beautiful glow. He was real to her.
"Why doesn't anyone ever pay any attention to you?" She asked once as they were walking back from his school. He shrugged.
"Maybe I don't want them to."
"You're hardly inconspicuous." Tilting his head, she could see the amusement that was clearly written on his expressive features.
"Oh really, tell me more?" Rolling her eyes she decided not to. He could handle a few less inflations of his ego.
"How do you always know where I am?" She asked instead, and he grinned at that.
"Because I can see you outside the window of my English class, and I ditch all my friends before hand." Surprise leapt onto her face and she threw him a dirty look, which he just shrugged off. "Why do you want to see them so badly?"
"Who wouldn't want to see Nick Halden in his natural environment?"
"You see me at home all the time." He pointed out with a frown. "Why do you want to see me in school?"
"Different point of view."
"Come visit for a day." He shrugged. "Couldn't be too hard, for an experienced conartist like you."
"What, pull off a day in your highschool?"
"Why not? You're eighteen; theoretically my parents should be forcing you to go to school with me. You're just lucky that they only reserve such torments for members of their blood kin."
"And what am I supposed to say?" She asked with a frown.
"Like I'm going to tell you that. Figure it out, you're a big girl." A snort of frustration bubbled up in her throat, but he did have a point. If she was going to go off and run cons in the big leagues she shouldn't be asking little Nicky for advice. "So are you coming, or not?"
"I'll come."
Maire and Thomas looked surprised when they returned that night and explained their plans to them. Still, they didn't seem to mind the idea and just told them to not cause any trouble. Alex swore that she wouldn't, but for a moment she was honestly confused. She couldn't understand exactly how much trouble they thought they'd get in. It wasn't like they were going to do anything extreme.
The comment seemed more directed towards Nick though, because while he was looking like an angel, he certainly had his halo held up by devil horns at time. There was something a little too innocent in the way that he managed to get her to agree to go to school, and she felt tricked after she thought about it somewhat.
It had been over five years since she last stepped foot on a school campus. After she'd left home, she'd slipped through every crack imaginable and she spent her days in the library and the museum and self taught herself everything she knew. By the time someone caught on to her age and the day and a truant officer arrived – she'd be long gone.
The fact that she was voluntarily going to step foot in a school building again made her question her sanity for a brief amount of time. She knew she had to be crazy, because only a crazy person would do that. Still – somehow he'd gotten her to agree and that was all 'she' wrote.
The next morning when Nick's alarm went off, she sat up in bed and she got dressed quickly. She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to tell herself that she was eighteen and that this was normal. Going to school was what kids her age did. Which was another thing – kids. When was the last time she thought of herself as a kid? She'd been saying she was twenty-five since she was sixteen, and she'd always held herself up to be that way.
Even now, she couldn't quite see the youth that she easily could pick up on in Nick. She couldn't quite see the age that she was trying to become. She only saw herself. Alexandra Hunter – twenty seven…but not. A sudden tremble of fear coursed through her, she didn't know if she could do this.
"I hate to point out the way you look, but I'm going to." She turned her head to look at Nick – he was dressed in his usual casual wear she saw him go to school in. It struck her then just how different he dressed when he went to school. Jeans and loose shirts made up his general attire, but when he came home he was usually running about in a dress shirt of some sort. He liked being presentable to the public when he wasn't associated with school.
"Enlighten me." She offered, realizing he probably understood better then anyone what it meant to dress the part.
"You look gorgeous, and you look twenty-something. Still, you look almost too good to be going to something as mundane as high-school." She looked back at herself, and watched in the mirror as he approached her slowly. "Don't use so much make up. Sure, you can use the concealer if you really wanted to, but the eye-shadow and the tone your using on your cheeks give the expression that you're older. That's fine, if you're hanging around here or working a job – but this is school. You want to look young or people turn heads." He moved towards the dresser where she'd been keeping the clothes she'd accumulated. Pulling out a much looser, though still pretty, blouse, he turned and held it up. "Lighter colors also make you look younger. When you constantly wear grays or blacks it's the illusion of looking older because of how it reflects and contrasts with the world around you."
"You certainly know a lot about the fashion industry." He shrugged.
"I help out at the theater at the school a lot. I always end up making clothes and the like." He passed the outfit to her, and she took the time to apply makeup remover to her face before she changed outfits.
"Somehow I can imagine you on the stage instead of behind the scenes." She stated evenly, and he held up his hands to show innocence.
"I never said I wasn't. I have many roles…costume designer, set builder, lighting man, main actor on the stage."
"You just like the spot light and the attention. If you do everything, it's just the way you want it to be, and you get all the credit."
"Guilty." He admitted blandly. "If you could see what they were doing before I came along though, you wouldn't be so quick to judge."
"I'm sure nothing was up to the standards of the great artist – Neal Caffrey." He grinned.
"You get it then."
"That Nick likes the sidelines and Neal likes to get all the credit? Yes, you're an average split personality." Rolling his eyes he turned his back so she could change her blouse without being watched. It was thoughtful of him and she did it quickly. "I'm good." And he glanced back. A smile crossed his features.
"You look legal enough to me." And she swatted towards him. He ducked, predictably, but when he straightened he passed her a hair tie that he'd swiped off her dresser. "Tie your hair back." She scowled at the idea.
"I only do that when I'm on a caper."
"And you're going to do it when you go to school too. No one at my school had hair as good looking or as nicely kept as yours. Just tie it back so that people don't stare."
"Are you kidding me? I look terrible with my hair back."
"Leave your bangs down then, and tie the rest back, come on already, we're going to be late."
"Yes Master, I shall obey." She hissed sarcastically and went to grab the tie from him. He pulled it back at the last moment, and frowned.
"On second thought, pigtails." Stunned shock was the only way to describe how she felt at that moment.
"Excuse me?"
"Pigtails, come on, braided pigtails- they'll make you look even younger. It'll be fine." And not for the first time that day – she wanted to kill him.
