Chapter 2 "A Mid Spring Night's Dream"

The house was silent and dark. It was early morning but the sun had yet to rise, the silence was comfortable and welcome to those dwelling within. But the harsh ringing of a telephone soon interrupted that tranquility.

"Do you need to get that?" Michael murmured, still dazed by the evenings events mixed with the sleep that he had just been startled from.

"Let it ring, the machine will pick up." Mandella replied, pulling Michael closer and starting to drift off to sleep again. With the beep of the machine a voice began to fill the room.

"Hey Mandella, I know you're there please pick up." It was Kat, she sounded like she had been crying. "Please I really need to talk." Before Kat could say anything more Mandella had gotten out of her bed and rushed to pick up the phone out of the cradle.

"Hey what's wrong?" She asked, the quilt from the bed wrapped around her.

"The whole thing was a lie. Patrick was paid to date me. I can't believe this… I thought he was being honest."

"Wait, who was paying him to take you out?" Mandella asked, she was surprised, as Patrick always seemed sincere about his feelings towards Kat.

"Who else would be desperate enough to get Bianca? Joey Donner."

"Are you kidding me? That jackass."

"What's wrong?" Michael asked softly, he had pulled himself into a sitting position, leaning against the headboard.

"Just a minute." She whispered back.

"Is someone there?" Kat asked.

"Uh… yeah… actually." Mandella said with a blush on her face. She shot a quick smile towards Michael before walking out of her room into the living room.

"Oh my God! You and Michael?" Kat almost screamed into the phone.

"Yes… we left after Bianca finished beating the crap out of Joey."

"Wait, I don't know what I want to hear about more, you and Michael sleeping together or my sister beating up Joey."

"Well, how about neither at this moment since I have a guy sitting in my bedroom?" Mandella asked, looking longingly at her bedroom.

"Right, sorry. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay. We'll figure something out. And if all else fails you can pull a Bobby Ridgeway on Patrick."

"That'll be plan B."

"Talk to you tomorrow." Mandella hung up the phone and walked back to her bedroom. A smile formed when she saw Michael had fallen asleep while he had been waiting for her. She put the phone back into its charger then crawled back into the bed.

"Everything alright?" He asked, wrapping his arms back around her and pulling her close.

"Not with Kat, apparently Patrick was being paid by that jackass Joey to take out Kat." Mandella said passively, snuggling closer to Michael.

"Oh…" He tried to sound surprised.

"What? You didn't know anything about it did you?" She asked, moving to look up at him.

"I might have known something about it… you see Cameron wanted to go out with Bianca and then I told him about the whole dating rule that the girls were under… that led to him saying something about how he could pay someone to take out Kat. The lack of money put a stop to that one, and then we came up with the idea of a backer, enter Joey…"

"So it was your idea?" Mandella asked, slightly worried that this great guy might not be what she had thought him to be. He had felt her hands clench where she had laid them on his chest and stomach.

"Not entirely… and there's one thing that everyone seems to be over looking here." Michael said, praying to find some sort of redemption.

"What is that?" She asked, sitting up so that she could look directly at him.

"Patrick has fallen for Kat. It's obvious to everyone but her it seems." He said, taking her hands in his own and keeping constant eye contact.

"I guess he did… and I know she likes him." Mandella looked down, "Sorry for…"

"No, it's okay, I did have a minor hand in the scheme of things." He said, slipping his fingers under her chin and tilted her to look at him again. "Don't be angry please…"

"I'm not, I couldn't be with you."

"Can we worry about this in the morning?"

"It is the morning." Mandella said with a laugh.

"So it is, good morning." He said, leaning down and kissing her.

"Very good morning. Lets go back to sleep."

"Even better." They curled up and went back to sleep. Little did they know what would happen in the week that lay ahead.

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