Sydney waited anxiously all week for Friday to arrive. Francie had been thrilled at the news that they were going to a hockey game, and she insisted that she help her get ready, much to Sydney's dismay.
"Francie, come on. I think I got this covered!" Sydney told Francie, who was busying herself in Sydney's closet. Every so often she would throw clothes into the room, not giving a thought to the fact that Sydney would have to be the one to pick them all up.
"You really haven't." She emerged from the closet, a stack of clothes lying in her arms. Sydney rolled her eyes, as her best friend dropped the clothes onto the bed. "Ok, so we have the classic jeans and cute T-shirt look." She held up a pair of jeans and the pink top that Sydney absolutely loved. "This can also be worn with the crème jacket!" She picked the jacket up and handed it to Sydney.
"Now, if you wanted to take the more dressier approach, we have the brown skirt and halterneck top." Francie handed Sydney the second outfit and started rummaging through the piles of clothes that was on the bed.
Sydney rolled her eyes and took a seat on the edge of the bed. "You know, I often wondered why you didn't take up a career in fashion. Just think, you could make money doing this for a living!" Sydney teased, but Francie hadn't heard a word of what she was saying. She was far too preoccupied with the clothes.
After a couple more minutes, Francie straightened up and rested her hands on her hips. "I'm gonna say, if I were you, I'd go with the jeans. It's more hockeyish than the skirt!"
"Gee Fran, I couldn't have made that decision on my own!" Sydney joked, walking over to her best friend.
"Hey! You could at least wait until I'd left the room before you start hurting my feelings!" Francie laughed as Sydney hugged her.
"Seriously though Francie. Thank you for your help." Francie could tell that Sydney was now being serious, every trace of her humour had left her face.
"Don't mention it."
"And I guess I should also thank you for having tooth ache in the first place! I mean, if you'd have never had to go to the dentist, then I wouldn't have had a hot date tonight!"
"Oh, so now everyone's thankful for the tooth ache!" Francie rolled her eyes and they both laughed. Sydney glanced at her watch and started to panic; she only had forty minutes until Michael was due to arrive. She quickly ushered Francie out of her room so that she could get ready.
Exactly forty minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Sydney was still in her room, putting on the finishing touches, so Francie answered the door. She couldn't help but smile at him as she answered the door, she was just so happy that they were finally going out.
"Hey Michael."
"Hey. Is Sydney ready?"
"Yeah she should be. Come inside." She walked into the hallway and Michael followed her inside. "Just take a seat, I'll go and tell her you're here." Michael nodded and walked into the living room, while Francie ran to Sydney's room.
"You're date is here!" She announced as she walked into Sydney's bedroom. Sydney smiled at her and spun around in the middle of her room.
"How do I look?"
"Gorgeous. Now don't keep him waiting!"
Sydney took a deep breath and walked towards the living room. She couldn't believe how nervous she was; after all it was just a date. I never usually get this worked up about going out with a guy; why should this time be any different? She paused, before walking into the living room where Michael was sat waiting on the couch. He stood up when he heard her enter and turned to face her. He couldn't wipe the smile of his face as he laid eyes on her. She was without a doubt, the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen.
Sydney blushed and smiled at him. "Hey." His eyes were still on her, but Michael was finding it hard to look away.
"Hi." He returned her smile. "You look…." He tried to find the right word to describe her but he couldn't.
Sydney laughed, realising that he wasn't going to finish his sentence. "Thanks. You ready to go?" Vaughn nodded and followed her out of the house.
When they reached Vaughn's car, he stepped infront of her and opened the door for her. Sydney thanked him and got into the car, watching as he walked around the front of the vehicle. He was dressed simply in beige combat pants and a black top, but Sydney thought that he looked hotter than ever.
The drive to the stadium went fairly quickly. They talked all the way there, and it was as if they had known each other for years, and not a matter of days. Vaughn parked the car and they got out, joining the masses of people who were walking into the stadium.
Vaughn grabbed Sydney's arm and led her out of the crowd. "I know another way in." He flashed her a smile and they started walking around the other side of the building, away from the crowds of people.
He knocked on the back door of the stadium, and a tall, middle ages guy opened it. Sydney watched the two guys greet each other, and then Vaughn leaned forward, whispering something to the man that Sydney couldn't hear. He thought for a couple of seconds and then nodded at Vaughn; looking at the two tickets and stepping aside, allowing them to enter the building. Michael gestured for Sydney to go before him, and then he followed her, thanking the man as he went.
Once they were out of earshot, Sydney turned to Vaughn. "I take it you come here a lot?"
"Yeah. Me and Weiss have season tickets." He looked behind him. "That's Tad. He came to me a little while ago, after getting into a hockey fight. He needed a lot of dental work doing, so I helped him out." He explained as they excited the long corridor, which led to the ice rink.
Vaughn led Sydney up the stairs as they tried to find their seats. Vaughn looked down at the seat number and smiled; Weiss had actually given him pretty good tickets.
"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" He asked as they finally sat down.
"No thanks, I'm good." She smiled at him, and then glanced around at the people in the stadium. Something struck her as odd, but she couldn't quite place her finger on what it was. The stadium just didn't look the way it did whenever she watched hockey games on the TV. "Er…Michael?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't actually come to actual games that often, I just usually watch them on TV with Will," Vaughn looked at her strangely, wondering where she was going with this. "So I don't actually know if this is normal or not. But are there usually this many women here?"
Vaughn smiled at her question and then looked around the stadium to see that she was right. The majority of people there were elderly women, women with young children, or just generally groups of women. There were only a handful of guys dotted around the stands, and those that were there didn't look too pleased about it.
"That's odd!" They looked at each other and laughed. "Maybe the sport's catching on!" He suggested, causing Sydney to laugh. He noticed how her eyes lit up as she laughed, making them look even more adorable then they already did.
Sydney was about to respond to his comment when the lights of the stadium dimmed. She smiled excitedly at him and gazed down at the ice. The whole stadium quietened down as a voice started talking over the loud speakers.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honour to welcome to the rink, the Los Angeles Ice Capades."
Everyone in the stadium stood up and started cheering as a group of ice skaters came onto the ice. Sydney and Michael remained seated, and slowly turned to look at each other.
"The Ice Capades?" Sydney asked, finding it difficult to hold her laughter in. Vaughn looked down at the floor, feeling his cheeks redden excessively. About ten minutes ago, he had been ready to thank Weiss for giving him such good tickets, but now he was ready to kill his friend. He was so embarrassed; he had wanted his date with Sydney to go perfectly, and now it was most probably ruined.
Sydney could tell by looking at him that he felt bad, so she quickly lightened the mood. "I would never have guessed that you were a Capades fan…" She playfully nudged him and he laughed, deciding to play along.
"Yeah, well it's a secret I try hard to keep hidden!"The stadium was filled with music as the skaters started doing their routines. Vaughn groaned and rested his head in his hands. Just when he thought the date couldn't get any worse; it managed to do just that.
"We can just go if you want." He stood up, his hands in his pockets.
"Oh come on," She put her hand on his arm to stop him from leaving. "It might be fun!" Her hand lingered on his arm for slightly longer than necessary before he finally sat down.
Maybe the date won't be as bad as I thought…"Ok, so that was probably you're worst first date right?" Vaughn asked as they left the stadium. They had sat and watched the Ice Capades for the past two hours, and although Sydney had looked like she enjoyed it, Vaughn knew that it had been a bad date.
"I wouldn't say that." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Believe it or not, I actually had a good time!"
"You did?"
"Yeah. You should have seen your face everytime one of the guys in tights came near our end of the rink. It was priceless!" Sydney laughed again, as she pictured the look of shear horror that was on his face.
"You are laughing at me?" Vaughn teased.
"I couldn't help it! You were just so cute…" Sydney stopped herself from talking as she realised what she had just said. Vaughn blushed, while inside his stomach was doing somersaults. She thinks I'm cute…
Sydney cleared her throat, hoping that he hadn't heard her comment, although they both knew that he had. They walked the rest of the way to the car in silence.
When they got into the car, the conversation started up again, as they started talking about the Capades.
"I can't believe Weiss gave me tickets to that." He shook his head and found himself laughing at what Weiss had done.
"Do you think he did it on purpose?"
"It's hard to say with Weiss. He's a practical joker, but he also could have genuinely made the mistake." He started driving Sydney back home.
Fifteen minutes later, they were walking up the driveway to Sydney's apartment. They stopped on the doorstep, while Sydney fumbled in her bag for her keys.
"I had a great time tonight Michael!" He looked at her sceptically and she laughed. "Ok, so it wasn't like other first dates that I've had, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't any less fun."
"I had a good time too. What can I say, the company made up for the lousy choice of location."
Sydney smiled, her eyes locking with his. They both knew what was coming next; the goodnight kiss. Vaughn was determined that tonight he wasn't going to make the mistake of not kissing her again. He leaned towards her and was relieved when she started to move closer to him too.
A sudden bang made them both pull apart. Sydney looked down the drive to see a grey cat running away from the trashcan that it had just knocked over. Sydney sighed and kissed Vaughn on the cheek.
"Goodnight Michael." She put her keys in the door and started to turn the lock.
Don't make the same mistake again… Vaughn touched her arm and turned her back around to face him. "Wait…" He whispered, placing his hands on her waist and pulling her towards him. Sydney wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing his lips closer to hers. He gently pushed her up against the door as they kissed deepened.
They finally pulled apart, both slightly out of breath. "Goodnight Sydney." He smiled at her and walked away, feeling much happier. Now matter how lame the actual date may have been he no longer cared; he got to finally kiss Sydney Bristow.
