Thank you to everyone who's reading! I'm so excited that you like it! Even if you didn't I'd still be ecstatic. -elwynclark


July 25, 2010

5:37 PM

"She'll call you back." I choked out slowly.

"Alright, thank you." Dean Yandow responded and the phone clicked. I put the phone back onto the receiver and sat there in silence.

"Sydney." I said quietly then got to a yell. "What the hell is going on?" Delilah sat down on the couch near the desk and Sydney paced back and forth behind the couch. She was starting to tear up.

"Start slow, what happened first?" Delilah asked in a calmer tone.

"Ok." Sydney said and she stopped pacing and faced us. "I was homeschooled until I was 9, because that was when I completed all the levels. Kindergarten to 12th grade. So then I went to college, at Columbia and graduated after 3 years."

"You lied about going to college?" I asked in a normal tone.

"I had my reasons." Sydney said then continued. "After Columbia, I went to Yale and got my doctorate at age14 because had been working towards it my entire life." Delilah and I looked at each other.

"You're a doctor?" Delilah asked.

"Not a medical one, but I hold degrees in psychology and parapsychology." Sydney said. "And that is why I know pretty much everything about Ghostbusters." I shook my head.

"Then why were you at Stuy, if you already graduated college?" I asked.

"It was a punishment." Sydney said immediately."I did something really bad that I couldn't fix myself, so I ran away. The police got involved because they were looking for me. I ran away."

"Where'd you run to?" Delilah asked.

"I was running to Connecticut. I was going to try to find Ray, my dad's old friend, and I guess Ellen too." Sydney said and glanced at me. "I made it as far as Union Station in New Haven."

"You would have had another half hour at least until you got to us." I said. "We lived in Westbrook."

"Sydney, that is seriously insane." Delilah said. "What did you even do to get a punishment like that?"

"I, well." Sydney stammered then cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you guys. No one knows but my dad and me. My mom too."

"Where's your mom?" I asked.

"During what I did then or now?" Sydney asked.

"Both." I said with a shrug.

"Well, then, they were already divorced and she went somewhere. She's probably still in the same place." I looked at Delilah and we both shrugged. Sydney told us absolutely nothing that we already didn't know.

"Does she live in the city?" Delilah asked.

"Oh yeah, she'd never leave New York." Sydney paused then looked away as she tried to recall facts. "She was working as an editor or consultant person to some fashion magazine. I don't even think it exists anymore."

"Well," Delilah started. She always had a magazine with her and could name pretty much any editor-in-chief of any fashion magazine. "Which one was it?"

"Yeah, she could be editor-in-chief by now." I urged.

"I don't know," Sydney said with a shrug as she racked her brain. "Runway? Runway magazine." Delilah and I looked at each other.

"Natalie Spencer?" Delilah asked.

"Yes?" Sydney responded.

"Natalie Spencer is your mom?" Delilah practically yelled. Sydney nodded.

"Do they still print Runway?" Sydney questioned.

"Of course, it's one of the top magazines." I said. And sometimes I feel like I live under a rock, but even I knew that I said to myself as I shook my head.

"Natalie Spencer is the editor-in-chief of Runway Magazine." Delilah mumbled slowly. Now it was Sydney's turn to look surprised, she obviously hasn't talked to her mom in years. Delilah started rattling off random facts about Runway magazine and Natalie Spencer.

"She was a model you know, Ellen." Delilah said to me because Sydney was only half paying attention. "That's why Sydney's so tall. She got her mom's looks and her dad's brain." Sydney stood up abruptly.

"Yes, I'm tall like my mother. I did most likely inherit many of the scientific things I know from my dad. Yes my mother was a model, and I never had any intent to be one. So don't get any ideas with this Jasmine thing." Sydney said and gestured to the card wedged in the case of my phone sitting on the desk. "I am a professional scientist with a degree, multiple degrees, and now we have people to save from another dimension." Sydney took a deep breath then marched to the stairs and went up to the second floor.

"She's still not telling something." Delilah inferred. I shrugged and turned on the computer on the desk. Of course she's not telling something. Everyone has secrets.

"Some other time." I mumbled and Delilah nodded. I don't know anything about my own mom. She left when I was a few days old. Delilah still has her mom, like a normal person. Jo grew up with her mom, but hasn't seen her in years. And now Sydney is still one big mystery.

"Natalie Spencer. That's amazing." Delilah said again shaking her head.


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