Okay, I am really ashamed right now. Not cause of the chapter (I think I did pretty good with it) but because it's been like five and a half months since I've last touched this story. Oh the shame of it. Well, now that I've worked out all the problems I was having with this, it will be added to my list of stories to update once a week. Again, I am so sorry that I've been ignoring this story.

Review responses are on my livejournal. Go to my author page and press the homepage button to access them.

Also, I decided to add Nadia to this story. She is just Sydney and Francie's best friend. She's not, I repeat is not Sydney's sister. Sorry if that annoys anyone, it just works better with the story to have her just be a friend.

"He doesn't like me!" Sydney yelled, yet still laughing and blushing immensely.

"I'm telling you, he does." France insisted, "He was staring at you all afternoon."

"No, he wasn't."

"Yes, he was."

"Wasn't."

"Was."

"Francie! He wasn't!" Sydney paused in painting her toenails to study the work she had done so far. She shrugged and went back to painting, "Besides, he's a senior."

"And you're a sophomore," Francie countered, "Two years isn't that big of a difference."

"To you, you'd date anything that looked at you twice." Sydney teased.

"I would not!" Francie admonished.

"Remember the guy at the blood bank." Sydney pointed out with a triumphant smile.

"What? I thought he fainted because of my smile." Francie defended, pouting a little. Sydney started to laugh. "What? I did!"

"It was a blood sugar thing, Fran. Everyone knows that."

"Not everyone," Francie replied.

Sydney shook her head, still smiling, "No kidding."

"Syd!" Francie yelled, threatening to throw a pillow at her best friend. "Not everyone has your parents."

Sydney's eyes narrowed, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Syd, your mom's a college English teacher, your dad's like the biggest thing over at the CIA, and your stepdad is a doctor. You practically won the smart gene lottery." Francie explained.

Sydney rolled her eyes, "Fran, I didn't get the smart gene from my stepdad."

"Well, you know what I mean."

"Actually I don't."

Francie frowned, and glared at her best friend. "Well, whatever." She shook her head, pushing the entire conversation out of her mind, "Two years still isn't that big of a difference."

Sydney shrugged, and capped the bottle of nail polish, being done with her toes. "I guess." She waved a hand over her toenails, speeding their drying time. "But Fran, he's Eric's friend."

"So?"

"Like best friend."

"So?" Francie asked again, not completely grabbing Sydney's point.

"So, he's off limits." Sydney said, slowly, like she was talking to a small child.

"Wouldn't it be the other way around?" Francie asked, meaning that Sydney would be off limits to the guy who liked her because she was the little sister.

Sydney thought about it for a moment before shaking her head and rolling her eyes, "Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway because he doesn't like me!"

"Yes, he does!" Francie admonished, exasperated. Sydney was stubborn, too stubborn at times. "Did you see his reaction?"

"To what?"

"Are you blind?"

"It would appear so." Sydney answered dryly.

Francie sighed heavily, "When we walked inside earlier, he could barely sit still."

"We probably made him uncomfortable." Sydney reasoned. They had kinda of been walking around in their bathing suits. Not every person was Francie and not every person could be comfortable around people like that. Maybe Vaughn was one of those people. She couldn't begrudge him that.

"Yeah, that's it." Francie answered her voice dripping with sarcasm. "He was uncomfortable because you were his walking wet dream!"

"Francie!" Sydney screeched sounding scandalized. Did her friend have to be so…perverted? Seriously, did she?

"He likes you." Francie stated firmly ignoring Sydney's screech.

"No, he doesn't." Sydney answered loudly.

"Yes, he does!" Francie yelled.

"No, he doesn't!" Sydney yelled back.

Both girls carried the look of stubborn determination in their glares.

"Do you like him?" Francie asked out of the blue and breaking the silence at the same time.

Sydney's cheeks flamed and she looked down at her feet again. After a couple moments, she mumbled something.

Of course, Francie didn't catch it. "What?"

"I said," Sydney ground out through clenched teeth. God, was Francie deaf or something? Actually, the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. "Maybe."

Francie heard it this time around and squealed. Actually squealed. "Really! Oh my God, Syd! You two are perfect for each other!"

Inwardly, Sydney groaned. Just great. Now that Francie knew that she kinda sorta liked Vaughn, she was going to rub it in her face til the end of time. And what was all this crap about being perfect for each other? They were in high school. You don't meet your soul mate in high school. Course, she hadn't met Vaughn in high school but that wasn't the point.

"Who's perfect for each other?" Eric asked, leaning in the doorway, holding the cordless phone idly in his hand.

Sydney managed to turn an even darker shade of red. "No one," She answered before Francie could get a word out. To Francie, she added in a lower tone so her stepbrother wouldn't hear, "I said maybe, that's not a yes."

"It might as well be," Francie replied.

Eric rolled his eyes. "You have weird friends, squid." He commented.

Sydney glared at him. "Did you have a reason for coming up here?" She asked curtly.

"Yeah," He answered off handedly. "Your friend's on the phone." He handed her the cordless phone before leaving the room of course leaving the door wide open. Well, Sydney could ignore that for now even if she had told him over and over not to leave her bedroom door open.

A little confused, Sydney raised the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Syd!" came the reply from an overly happy voice.

Sydney grinned. "Hey Nads." She greeted back. Maybe the girls' other best friend would support her a little. "Fran, Nads is on the phone." She informed Francie.

"Speakerphone!" Francie urged.

Sydney rolled her eyes but put the phone on speakerphone so both girls could hear Nadia and vice versa.

"Hey Fran." Nadia greeted.

"Hey Nads." Francie answered before asking what she really wanted to talk about. "Do you think that Syd likes Vaughn?"

"Francie!" Sydney screeched, throwing a pillow at her best friend.

Francie ducked the pillow easily. "I'm talking to Nads, not you."

"Of course she does," Nadia replied laughing as well causing Francie to break out into a fit of giggles.

"Nads!" Sydney cried feeling very outnumbered. Now they were conspiring against her. Just great.

"What?" Nadia asked her tone innocent but Sydney knew better. Nadia could act innocent and trap you in her lies and by the time you realized that you were screwed it was too late to do anything about it.

"I said maybe! That's not admitting to liking him!" Sydney cried frustrated.

"Yes it is," Both Nadia and Francie replied at the same time.

Sydney groaned and buried her face in her hands. "You two are impossible."

"Why thank you," Francie answered cheekily.

"Gee, Syd, that was nice." Nads commented obviously joking.

"Well," Sydney started but stopped stupidly. She couldn't finish that sentence. That much she knew. Damn, they had her stuck. Well, this sucked.

"Here's a question," Nadia added pushing aside Sydney's dumb moment. "Why is it such a big deal if you like Vaughn or not?"

Sydney sighed. "I don't know…"

"You know, the more you deny it, the more you're trying to deny it to yourself." Francie commented.

Sydney sighed again. "Can we talk about something else? Please?" She asked, throwing a look towards Francie.

For once, Francie accepted that she wasn't going to win and bothering her friend more would only prove to piss her off. "Oh!" She said, changing the subject just like Sydney requested. "I went shopping yesterday and I found the greatest vintage store ever."

That distracted Nadia easily enough. The girl loved all things vintage. Had for years now. "You have to take me." She commanded causing both Francie and Sydney to laugh. "Like today."

"I can't today," Francie argued.

"Why not?" Nadia whined.

"Because for one, my mom took away mypermit and for another, I'm supposed to go straight home after Syd's today." Francie explained.

"Why's that?" Nadia pushed. No one could insult her determination. The girl was chalk full of it.

Sydney left them to their conversation about why Francie was in so much trouble with her mom –because she'd missed curfew three days in a row- and turned her thoughts back to what the trio had been fighting about.

Did she like Vaughn? God, that was such a hard question. Why? Because she was the geek, the nerd, the unpopular one in school. She liked to study and read and focus on her school work, making time only for her friends and her family and her biweekly defense class. She wasn't the one to get involved with guys, something her mother had said was a good thing. Guys weren't worth it in high school.

But maybe Vaughn was. She'd known him since forever. Okay, forever was a bad term but she'd known him since her mom had married Eric's dad. Basically since she'd been two. Almost fourteen years was a very long time.

It didn't help that, even at seventeen, Vaughn was a living version of a Greek god. Every girl in their school seemed to lust over him and he didn't even notice. That's what she liked about him. He didn't even notice that a vast majority of the female population at their school –even the ones with boyfriends- worshipped the ground he walked on. It wasn't that he did anything special to merit such attention. He played hockey but not for the school team. He got good grades but wasn't a genius like Sydney. He was just good looking.

Very good looking, Sydney thought dreamily. And funny, and smart –no matter what he said, kind, loyal, compassionate, determined, great with kids…oh my God. Without making the conscious decision to do so, she straightened suddenly, a shocked expression on her face causing Francie to ask what the matter was. She didn't even hear her friend, she was too wrapped up in her own realization.

I'm practically in love with my brother's best friend.

-

"Maman! I'm home!" Vaughn called, closing the door behind him warily. Walking home had only provided him time to think about Sydney and then chastise himself for doing so. He was starting to regret not taking the bus. Or better yet, not driving to Eric's house in the first place, that would have been so much easier.

When his mother didn't return any form of a greeting, he frowned while tossing his keys on the foyer table. "Maman?" He tried again. It wasn't like his mother not to be home at six on a Wednesday.

But she wasn't there. After searching the entire house except for the kitchen and finding nothing, he wandered into the kitchen intent on grabbing a soda and being on his merry way -yeah, right-to homework. It was in the kitchen that he found the answer to his mother's disappearance: a hastily scribbled note on the fridge. Sighing, he grabbed the note and skimmed it.

Michael,
Trish called again and insisted that she saw a ghost in her bedroom. Went to go calm down her insane hysterics. Don't wait up for me. Money for dinner's on the table.

Love,
Maman

p.s. If Jonathon calls, tell him I'll call him back and then call me immediately!

Rolling his eyes, Vaughn crumpled the note and tossed it onto the counter. His aunt going crazy about seeing another ghost in her house was nothing new –that happened all the time- it was the fact that she had asked him to call her if Jonathon called.

He had nothing against Jonathon as a human being. If the man wasn't dating his mother, he wouldn't have any problem with him. He probably would even like him. But the man was dating his mother and Vaughn didn't like that. He didn't see the need for his mother to date. Of course, his father had been dead for years and it was normal for a woman to move on after such a long time but could she at least wait until he was out of the house to start dating again? He had less than a school year before he would be gone. Was it so much to ask her to wait that little amount of time?

Yeah, don't answer that.

Vaughn reached for the phone and dialed the pizza place –something he seemed to be doing a lot since Jonathon came into his mother's life- ordering a medium meat lover's pizza. He didn't even have to give the guy at the pizza place his address, that's how familiar with the fast food institution he was.

Cracking open his can, he leaned against the counter and let his mind wander again. Almost instantly, it went to the subject of Sydney. God, what was he going to do? He liked her a lot. Maybe not love but he was sure that if they ever dated, it wouldn't take much for him to completely fall for her. But she was his best friend's sister! Okay, stepsister but they'd grown up together. They were siblings.

Okay, I have two options. I can either: ask Sydney out, date her despite her being Eric's sister, and if I get my way, live happily ever after with her. Or I can not ask her out, spend a whole lot of time beating myself up for not asking her out, and settle for having to just be her friend for the rest of my life.

Option number one seemed so much more appealing –for good reason- but he couldn't stop that little voice in the back of his head nagging about how you don't date your best friend's sister. That was almost as bad as dating your best friend's ex.

Or option number three: I ask Sydney out and then we don't tell Eric about our relationship until after we're married and expecting our first child. By then, it'll be too late for him to do anything about it.

Another groan escaped his lips. Married? First child? God, he hadn't even had one date with her and he was already thinking about marriage and children. What the hell was wrong with him?

Although, the asking her out and then not telling Eric option did sound very very appealing. Of course, there'd always be that fear of being caught but that would add more intrigue to the relationship. Not that he felt that if he dated Sydney that their relationship would need more intrigue to it. It's just that…oh nevermind.

The sound of the doorbell interrupted his thoughts and glad for any excuse to put his dilemma aside for a couple more minutes, Vaughn pushed off the counter and went to answer the door. It was the pizza guy.

"Hey Jesus," Vaughn said, taking the pizza and handing the pizza guy the money. He wasn't entirely sure what Jesus's real name was, but everyone just called him Jesus cause he had the long brown hair and the flowing beard that the real Jesus had. It was a long withstanding joke and Vaughn wasn'tabout to question it.

"Yo Mike." Jesus answered, taking the money. "Pizza again, eh?"

"Yeah, Maman's making sure that my Aunt Trish doesn't hurt herself." Vaughn replied.

Jesus chuckled. "Seeing ghosts again, is she?"

Vaughn nodded, laughing as well. "She's insane. It's expected."

Trish was the family nutcase. That was for sure. She believed in crystal balls and séances, the whole works. Her antics had bothering Vaughn's mother for years. She was a no-nonsense, logical sort of woman and having a crazy loon for a sister-in-law had always irked her the wrong way. While Vaughn wasn't as extremely logical as his mother, he still thought his aunt was nuts.

"I thought Maman would have been out with her Johnnie." Jesus said.

Vaughn rolled his eyes for two reasons. The fact that Jesus was so comfortable with calling his mother 'Maman' and her boyfriend 'Johnnie' –Vaughn didn't call him 'Johnnie' even as a joke- and becausehe had sort ofbeen expecting the same thing.

"Don't even go there," He warned.

"Alright, whatever." Jesus shrugged. "Well, I got pizza to deliver. See you later in the week?"

"Most likely," Vaughn answered.

"Later Mike." Jesus said, walking back to his truck.

"See ya," Vaughn replied, going back into the house with his pizza balancing on one arm while he closed the door with his other. He set the box down on the table and immediately grabbed a slice, finishing it in less than two minutes. Could you blame him? He was hungry. Just as he was about to grab another, the phone started to ring.

"Hello?" He asked, a little put out by the timing of the phone call.

"Is Amelie there?"

Vaughn had to bit his lip to keep from growling. He should have known Jonathon would call. "No, actually, she's not." He answered shortly.

"Oh," Jonathon responded and again, Vaughn had to bite his lip to keep from making any noise (this time a snort). "Will you tell her I called?"

"Sure," Vaughn answered, still being curt with the man.

He could almost hear the frustration coming from Jonathon. "Alright, thanks."

"Whatever." Vaughn responded, hanging up with the phone immediately afterwards. Well, he thought, I could have been nicer. But then again, that would undermine my plans to get rid of him.

'I bet Sydney wouldn't have approved of what you just did.' A second voice answered in his head.

This time Vaughn growled. Don't you think I know that?

'You don't act like it,' The voice answered.

Shut up already, would you. I don't need grief from you too.

After that, his second voice left him alone. Alone to contemplate what the hell he was going to do about Sydney. Besides elope with her just so he wouldn't have to tell his best friend that he really liked his friend's younger sister.

A couple minutes later, he realized that he had to call his mother and tell her that Jonathon called. Sighing heavily, he grabbed the phone and dialed Trish's number.

"I told you, stop using the phone. I don't like E.V.P.s." His aunt said immediately after picking up the phone.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not dead, don't you think?" Vaughn answered dryly.

"All spirits think they aren't dead for a short period of time," Trish consoled obviously not recognizing her nephew's voice. "But I'm sorry to tell you that you are in fact dead."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not dead, Aunt Trish. It's Michael."

"Michael? Oh God, Amelie! Come quick! Your son's calling from beyond the grave!" Trish responded still not getting it. How naïve could this woman be? Not every phone call was from a dead person. In fact, a majority of them were from the living.

"No, Trish. He's not." Amelie answered. Vaughn could tell by her tone –though muffled- that she was having a hard time staying patient with her sister-in-law. "Give me that phone." She commanded. After a couple static-like noises, his mother's voice came clear over the line. "Michel? What's the matter?" She asked, using the French form of his name.

"Jonathon called," Vaughn replied flatly.

"He did?" Amelie asked sounding almost giddy. "How long ago?"

Vaughn cringed a little at her accusatory tone. "Five minutes ago, if that." Something told him that his mother knew that he disliked Jonathon and wouldn't trust him as far as she could throw him when it came to her boyfriend.

"Did you order dinner?" She questioned.

"Yep."

"Are you eating it?"

"Yep."

"Doing your homework?"

"Just getting to it."

"Good, I should be home by eleven. I expect to see you in bed by then."

"Yes, Maman." He answered dutifully. He was seventeen for Christ's sake. He could set his own bedtime.

"Good bye," She said, hanging up the phone before he could return the pleasantly, not that he really wanted to.

Sighing for the umpteenth time, he placed the phone back on the receiver. Grabbing another couple slices of pizza, and his soda, he bounded up the stairs to start on his homework and hopefully forget about his Sydney problem for a couple hours.

Next Chapter: Daydreaming during P.E.