Author's note: This takes place sometime after the last chapter.


"Sydney?"

Sydney flinches at the unexpected sound, almost banging her head against the tiny grilled metal door of her locker.

It's now lunchtime, the last day before winter break, and Sydney is rifling through the belongings stashed in her locker, trying to find a book to read as she eats.

Everyone else is already out eating lunch already, but Sydney's looking for something to distract her as she patiently waits out the last few hours of class until the winter break freedom.

'Just a couple of hours, and I'm out of here for two weeks,' is the mantra currently running through her head.

She locates her battered copy of "Pride and Prejudice" when a voice, the voice says her name, from somewhere frighteningly close to her.

'Oh god. Please tell me I'm dreaming.' Sydney thinks, suddenly panicked. She fantasizes about meeting up with him again, but not like this.

Sydney slowly pulls her head out of her locker, and first looks quickly to her right, and then to her left.

As she expects, Michael is standing next to her open locker door, with a bemused expression on his face.

"Hey, Sydney! I thought that was you!" Michael positively beams at her, obviously happy to have run into her. "I've been wondering where you were these past couple of weeks. I've tried looking for you, but you're apparently impossible to find."

"I…uh…" still shocked, Sydney struggles for coherence in her words. Finally, after taking a deep breath of air, Sydney smiles back at him. "Michael. It's good to see you." Sydney gestures towards her locker with her right hand. "I'm sorry, I was kind of startled. I really wasn't expecting to see anyone else in here. I thought everyone was in the cafeteria already."

Michael smiles at her again, green eyes sparkling. "Yeah, I'm actually on my way there now. I had to stop by Mr. Oudega's class and pick up a paper from him. It's part of our final grade for the semester." With a flourish, Michael brandishes the paper that had been tucked under his left arm, and shows it to Sydney. "Check it out! A+!"

"Congrats…Oudega teaches modern drama, right?" Sydney asks.

"Yep."

"What was your paper on?"

Michael looks wryly at the paper for a moment, before turning his attention back to Sydney.

"Theatre of the absurd. We were supposed to pick a play to read, and write a style-analysis essay on it."

Sydney glances down quickly at the paper, and smirks slightly when she sees the title of the paper. "Waiting for Godot?" She looks back up at him, noting the amused twinkle in his eyes.

"Yeah. I was kind of inspired by you, actually." Michael looks down sheepishly, but his mouth widens into a grin.

"Me? What? Who? How?"

"Well, you know the day we met?" Michael looks up again. His eyes have now eased themselves into a cool, hypnotic green. "I noticed you were reading 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Was Dead.' I hadn't read it before, but I checked it out. I really liked," Michael pauses for a minute, "And I got kind of hooked on the genre. I eventually stumbled on 'Waiting For Godot', and decided to write my Oudega paper on it."

Michael looks at Sydney for a moment. "Oudega was really impressed; He'd never have a student so into the theatre of the absurd before, so he gave me the 'A'." Michael pauses again, and grins at Sydney. "I guess I have you to thank for this grade."

Sydney blushes slightly. 'Wow. He was really paying attention that day.' Her hands start fiddling with the straps of her messenger bag, but she manages to look up at him and say, "No, the paper was all you. I'm sure you would've written something that would've impressed him anyway."

Michael shakes his head. "I don't think so. But anyway, are you headed towards the cafeteria?"

Sydney nods slightly. "Yeah, I was."

"Great! You can sit with me then."

Sydney opens her mouth to protest, but Michael just smiles at her, with a slightly superior smirk. "Nope. No protesting. I haven't seen you in weeks. You can't get out of this."

Sydney closes her mouth. 'Argh. What do I do?' She thinks, as she lets herself be led by Michael towards the cafeteria doors.