"Miss Bristow, put away the note," snapped Mr. King, the girls' American history teacher.

Sydney smiled sheepishly and tucked the note into in her binder. "Sorry, Mr. King."

Mr. King gave her a hard look before continuing with his lesson, "As I was saying, the Civil War…"

Sydney yawned behind her hand and picked her pen with the other. You seem distracted Nads, something wrong? She scribbled on another piece of paper. When the teacher was looking the other direction, Sydney slipped the note onto Nadia's desk to the right of her.

A few minutes later, the note was returned to her desk, only from Francie who sat behind her.

Of course not, Nadia wrote.

You're lying, Francie scribbled under that.

Fran has a point, what are you hiding? Sydney wrote before she passed the note back to Nadia.

It's nothing, just drop it, Nadia put down.

Oh, so it is something? Francie asked.

Sydney suppressed a giggle. You can tell us Nads. We're trustworthy.

LOL! Yeah, right. You two?

We take offense to that, don't we Syd?

Of course we do, Francie. Didn't we swear back in the third grade not to hide things from each other?

That was when our biggest problem was our pudding being stolen during lunch, Nadia argued.

And we told each other about it.

I bet it's some boy problem, Sydney put in.

"Miss Santos!" Mr. King roared catching her with the note this time. "No passing notes during class. Kindly discard that note in the trash."

"Yes, Mr. King," Nadia replied dutifully getting up to throw the note away. When she sat back down, she pulled out another sheet of paper and scribbled something on it before tossing it to Francie. Half a minute later, the note was back in Sydney's hands.

Maybe, was all that Nadia had written.

Maybe what?

I knew it had something to do with a boy.

Yes, congratulations. Wow, even a note was sarcastic.

Wait… we're talking about boys? Why didn't I know this? Francie asked

Because Nads had to throw away the note, Sydney explained.

Syd wrote it, Nadia added.

Ooohh… so who's the boy?

What are you? Twelve? Sydney teased.

LOL!

Twelve and three quarters. You didn't answer my question, Santos.

Lmao! You need to stop watching BBC.

I know, Nadia answered.

Oh shut up would you? You're not my mother. Answer the question Santos. Who's the boy?

Yeah, who's the boy? Sydney echoed.

Now you both sound like twelve year olds. And what are you going to do to me if I don't?

Twelve and three quarters! Get it right! And we'll… help me out Syd.

We'll send a pack of rabid monkeys to your doorstep.

Oh sorry, twelve and three quarters. Where are you going to get a pack of rabid monkeys?

Africa. Duh!

LOL! Eric claims he knows someone.

You're going to get a pack of rabid monkeys from either: Africa or your stepbrother? Real threatening.

Eric claims a lot of stuff. Like that the moon was made out of cheese.

You didn't really believe him, did you? Sydney asked. They had been nine at the time sure but no one was that impressionable.

Course not… right Fran?

Er… I was a very impressionable nine year old. Francie admitted.

Sydney couldn't stop herself from giggling before it was too late.

"Something amusing about Gettysburg, Miss Bristow?" Mr. King sneered.

"The name?" Sydney answered putting her hand over the note.

Mr. King sent her another hard look and went back to his lesson. "At Gettysburg…"

You dork. Sydney wrote before passing the note to Nadia.

Nice save Syd, the name!

Don't call me a dork! Ha! The name and the fact that it's in Amish country.

Oh no it's not.

It's in Pennsylvania right? Nadia asked.

Yes, and that whole state is Amish. Francie answered.

Have you even been to Pennsylvania?

I think the farthest from L.A. she's been is Seattle.

Cancun, thank you very much and no, I haven't been to Pennsylvania.

Then how do you know that it's all Amish?

When did you go to Cancun? Nadia questioned.

My cousin told me. She lives in New Jersey. And I went two summers ago.

But she doesn't live in Pennsylvania. Sydney argued.

Would you shut up about the Pennsylvania and Amish people?

Yes, let's shut up about it.

Not before I prove that I'm right.

Oh, here we go again. Nadia commented.

Sydney's on a mission.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

You're very determined… Nadia started.

… and stubborn and you always have to be right. Francie finished.

I don't always have to be right.

Yes, Syd you do.

Don't forget stubborn.

Sydney ground her back teeth as she wrote a reply, How about we stop talking about my faults and go back to what we were talking about before? Nads's boy problems.

How about we don't?

No, I like Syd's idea. Boy troubles! Spill!

Now! Sydney added.

You two are impossible.

We know. Remember, Syd's stubborn.

And Francie's a gossip.

Don't remind me.

I am not a gossip!

Yes you are. And you're stalling Nads. Spill or it's monkey time.

LOL! And –sigh- He's an upperclassmen.

And this is a crisis because…

I'm not seeing it either, Sydney added.

Ugh! I knew you two would be thick about this. He's an upperclassmen, kinda makes it hard to date him.

Nah, look at Syd and her Mikey.

I'm not dating him and don't call him Mikey. Sydney defended.

But you want to date him, Nadia pointed out. And I agree. Don't call him Mikey.

Whatever –eyeroll- The point is, that Syd is in the same dilemma as you.

At least I know my guy's name… Sydney wrote, hoping Nadia would drop the name of this mystery guy that she was caught up on.

Nice try Syd. I know his name and I'm not telling the two of you.

Why not!

Good question, why not?

Because: A) gossip queen and B) I don't want to!

Would you stop calling me a gossip!

Suck it up Fran, you are. We really don't care if you don't want to tell us.

Some friends you are…

Yep, and we're the only ones you've got.

Hear, hear.

I've got other friends. Nadia defended.

Oh yeah? Francie wrote. And how many of them know you used to have nightmares about a giant peanut?

Or that you spent the first five years of your life in Argentina? Sydney added.

Alright fine, you two are my only real friends. But I'm still not telling you.

Party pooper.

The bell rang before Sydney could write a response. No matter, they could talk now. "We will find out who he is." She warned Nadia.

"I'd like to see you try," Nadia replied, gloomily.

Francie hooked her arm around Sydney's neck and grinned. "The gossip queen and mini spy have yet to fail."

Sydney laughed, "Stop calling me the mini spy."

"Only if you stop calling me a gossip," Francie replied.

"But with you it's true. Syd, not so much," Nadia argued as the trio left the classroom.

"Oh Nadia, Nadia, Nadia… I have so much to teach you," Francie sighed mockingly letting go of Sydney and hooking arms with the other girl. "And we have all of English in which I can do so."

"Oh joy," Nadia muttered darkly.

Sydney rolled her eyes, "I'll see you guys after school at the Lighthouse okay?" The Lighthouse was a coffee house where she worked as a waitress to earn more money. It was her day off today but the girls liked to meet there to hang out.

"Sure thing Syd," Francie said over her shoulder as she and Nadia disappeared into the flood of students.

Sydney rolled her eyes again and set off towards the office. Her last class of the day was as an office aide. Basically, she sat there and answered the phone, sometimes she got to sort mail too. It might as well have been a study hall that was for credit.

As it turned out, she got to sort the mail today. Oh joy. She was halfway done with it when a familiar voice asked, "Do you think I could get some free popcorn?"

She smiled and turned towards him. "I thought you were supposed to be in weights class right now."

Vaughn flashed her a grin. "I am," He defended. "I'm just taking a break."

"A break that includes popcorn?"

"Exactly," He agreed glancing towards the popcorn machine in the teacher's lounge full of freshly popped popcorn. "It's healthy for you…"

"Uh huh," She replied dryly. "Judy! Is it alright if I give Vaughn some popcorn?" She yelled.

"Sure thing, dear!" Judy, the school secretary and technically the person Sydney worked for as an aide replied.

"Help yourself," Sydney shrugged.

"Thanks," Vaughn grinned at her again and went for the popcorn. "Sorting mail again are we?" He asked munching on a handful.

She nodded, tapping a letter against her hand as she searched for the correct box to put it in. "You wouldn't happen to know of a Mrs. Jones would you?"

Um… she was my Health teacher as a freshman. Last I heard was that she was getting skin cancer in Spain. Why?" He replied.

"Because I have a letter for her," She answered. "And we toss it."

"What if that is important?" He asked after she had already thrown the letter in the trash.

"It was from a chocolate company," She responded. "It couldn't have been that important."

"You always trash teacher's mail?"

"Only when it's not important," She admitted.

He laughed, sticking another handful in his mouth. "Make me one of your references if you ever decide to join the postal system okay?"

"And why would I want to do that?" Seriously, her be a postal worker? Not likely.

He shrugged. "Dunno, you got the sudden urge to help your country."

"Then I would join the armed forces," She said slipping a letter into a box. "Or join a different branch of the government."

"You wanna be a government worker, just not in the postal industry." He concluded.

She nodded. "I might go into the CIA, like my dad."

"And my dad," He reminded her. "I didn't realize that you looked up to your father that much."

"I don't," She admitted turning to look at him. "But I like the idea of espionage. What about you; you going into the CIA?"

"I was thinking about it," He confessed. "My mom says that's what my dad would have wanted."

She smiled. "At least you got along with your dad. Mine… he might as well be dead for all I know."

"I thought you were spending all weekend at his house," He pointed out.

"Only Friday night til Sunday morning, that's not all weekend."

"Most of the weekend," He corrected.

"I am," She sighed.

"Then how could he be dead?"

"You never know, maybe a lightning bolt took pity upon me and struck him down in his car or something," She muttered.

"Don't say that," He requested softly.

She stared at him confused for a second before it hit her. Here she was talking about how much she wanted her father to die when he'd already lost his father. God, how stupid was she? "Oh my God," She gasped. "I am so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it," He replied dismissively. "It was a long time ago."

Yeah, she remembered those days. She had been six at the time when his father had died. One of her first memories was of when she, Eric, Nadia, Francie, and Vaughn all spent a week in the tree house in Francie's backyard. None of their mothers could get them to come home. Cheering up Vaughn was more important.

"I'm still sorry," She insisted. "I never should have said that."

"Listen, don't beat yourself up about it, okay?" He told her.

Sydney bit her lip and nodded. "I'm still sorry."

Vaughn laughed, "And you're forgiven. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to class before I'm seriously missed. See ya later Syd." And then he bounded out of the door leaving her to kick herself over her stupidity for the next hour until school ended.

-break-

"Dude, you wanna come over to go swimming?" Eric asked Vaughn as they were leaving the locker room.

"Sure," Vaughn answered immediately. Anything to delay going home for as long as he could. With his luck, Jonathon and his mom were going to be there and that was not something he wanted to be around.

"Avoiding Maman again?" For some reason, everyone had taken up calling Vaughn's mother 'Maman' like he did. It didn't bother him or his mom so he didn't comment on it.

"No," Vaughn replied a little too quickly. "Do you want me to come over or not?" He added when his friend gave him a skeptical look.

"Don't need to snap at me," Eric muttered.

Vaughn didn't even bother apologizing.

"You wanna get some coffee?" Eric asked after they had piled into the car.

"It's three in the afternoon," Vaughn replied dully.

"Congratulations, you can read time," Eric rolled his eyes. "You can get lemonade or something."

"Don't I feel special."

"Alright, what has crawled up your butt and made you into Scrooge today?" Eric joked.

"Nothing," Vaughn answered his voice sounding sullen. "I'm thinking. Something you wouldn't know about."

"Ouch," Eric mocked. "Nothing you feel like sharing with your best friend?"

"Nope."

"Fine whatever, be moody." Eric shrugged stopping the car in front of the Lighthouse. "See if I care."

"Okay then," Vaughn replied easily getting out of the car.

The sound of girls giggling followed by a loud "I don't like him that much Fran!' greeted the two boys when they entered the coffee house. Sydney and her friends sat around one of the tables near the door, all red in the face from laughing.

"Squid, get us a coffee and a lemonade for Mikey over here," Eric ordered.

Sydney stopped laughing and glared at her brother. "It's my day off. Go ask Alice to get you your damn coffee."

"And lemonade," Vaughn added as Eric stalked off towards the counter. "He's too addicted to coffee."

"You used to be too," Francie pointed out.

"And you still are, actually…" Nadia added.

He gave them a look. "I don't need coffee at the three in the afternoon anymore."

"Anymore being the key word there?" Sydney teased.

"Squid!" Eric yelled making his way back over to the girls and Vaughn with his cell phone pressed to his ear. Sydney sighed and rolled her eyes. Would he ever stop calling her that name? "Mother dearest says you have to come home with me and Mike."

"Why?" Sydney challenged.

He shrugged and hung up the phone. "Dunno, she just said to bring you home." He replied handing one of the cups he was clutching to Vaughn.

"Probably have to do chores or something," She grumbled. "Sorry guys."

"It's your mom," Francie replied. "I wouldn't want to cross her."

Sydney rolled her eyes as she stood up from the table, taking one last drink of her smoothie. "Bye guys."

"Bye!" Nadia and Francie chorused as the trio left the coffee house.

"And since Mike was here first, you get back seat," Eric told Sydney.

"Yeah, yeah," Sydney murmured, climbing into the backseat of the car.

Sydney had been right. Her mother did want her to come home early so she could do chores. While she went to work, cleaning the bathrooms, Vaughn and Eric changed into their swimming trunks and jumped into the pool. Eric contented himself with doing cannonballs, over and over and over and over… and over.

Vaughn was starting to get a little tired of being splashed constantly. "Mind cutting that out and staying in the pool for more than five seconds?" He growled.

Eric resurfaced after jumping in and raised an eyebrow at his friend. "I repeat my question from before, what crawled up your butt and made you into Scrooge?"

"It's nothing," Vaughn replied dismissively. Truth was, he was a little out of it because of his conversation with Sydney and her wishing that her father was dead. Even though he told her not to worry about it and she had apologized, it had affected him and put him in a cranky mood. People just didn't get what it was like to actually lose a parent.

"Hey!" Sydney yelled. When they ignored her, she picked up the beach ball lying at her feet and chucked it at they're heads. It ended up hitting Eric. "I said, hey!"

Eric growled when maimed by the beach ball and turned to her. "What?"

Sydney rolled her eyes, one hand on her hip, the other holding the cordless phone in her hand. "Maman's on the phone!"

"Thanks Syd!" Vaughn answered before Eric could get a word out. Sending his friend a look out of the corner of his eye, he paddled over to Sydney, jumping out of the pool pausing only to dry himself off a little. "Yeah?... okay… I will… bye." He hung up the phone and held it out to her. She took it, shrugging, before tossing it onto one of the lounge chairs.

"What'd Maman want?" Eric asked, coming over to them.

"I have to be home for dinner in an hour," Vaughn said.

"How pressing," Sydney muttered.

"Be quiet squid and go back to cleaning your toilet," Eric commanded.

Sydney glared at him. "Do you enjoy being a prick?"

"Only towards you," He responded off handedly.

She gave him another glare and turned to stalk off but Vaughn grabbed her arm. "Come swim with us." She hesitated. "Come on, take a break." What the hell was he doing? Why had he grabbed her arm? Oh hell.

"I'd rather not," She answered still peeved at her brother.

"Then I'll guess we'll have to make you," He replied. Before she could protest, he picked her up by the waist and tossed her into the pool.

"Vaughn!" She sputtered, resurfacing. Great, now she was wet and she still had chores to finish. The two boys roared with laughter. "You both suck!"

Still laughing, Vaughn approached the edge of the pool. "I warned you."

Glaring at him, she reached out and grabbed his ankle, giving it a rough yank. He lost his footing and fell face first into the pool. Eric starting roaring with laughter again as she smiled triumphantly. "Oops," She said innocently.

He gave her a glare of his own. She was too distracted by her apparent victory to defend herself against a large splash from him. There, that got her back.

"Vaughn!" She cried indignantly. Well, if he wanted to play like that, she could play like that. While he was busy laughing, she sent him a large retaliation splash.

Her retaliation started an all out splashing war. After a particularly damaging of her pride splash, she paused. Whether it was on purpose or not, but he hesitated as well and they just stared at each other, completely oblivious to anything and everything else.

Eric must have sensed a good time to get them both because he cannonballed into the pool again at that exact moment, drenching them both with water and effectively ruining the moment.

Damn Eric.

SSB's note: In my defense... something did happen in this chapter. Like... splash fights and, um... secret crushes. That'll come into play later.

Seriously, this time around, review responses are on my livejournal (click homepage on my author's profile). I've been slacking on those... bad Melanie.

Next Chapter: Occasion for a cold shower.