AN: Thanks so much for the reviews, and sweetiepie1019, chances are, Angel will never get sick… But then again, I just joined a RPG where I have to play her as sick, and it's actually really interesting, so maybe in the future she will get sick… SHE WILL NEVER DIE THOUGH! And I never even thought of what Angel was doing while Collins was at MIT… Darn! Now I need to be creative and actually think about it…pouts I am in need of a muse…

The day after we went to the club, everyone seemed to go in separate directions. Roger was, gladly, sleeping of his hangover, and Mimi was comforting him. Collins had a class to teach, and Joanne went to watch. Mark, with camera in tow, decided he wanted to film on the school grounds for awhile, Maureen, wanted to be filmed, and I, well I had nothing better to do, so I went with them.

It was thankfully a beautiful spring day. Mark was flitting about campus, filming whatever moved, groups of students, trees, and things that didn't move, the building. He was going on and on about the great shots he was getting.

Maureen rolled her eyes. "Mark?" She called to him from her spot on the bench. She tugged on her shirt. "Do you think this shirt makes my breasts look too big?"

Mark stopped in his tracks, his camera still to his eye and shook his head. "No Maureen, you look great." I was so proud of him for not playing her game.

But Maureen was not so easily stopped. "But Markie…" Her voice was somewhere between a pout and an excited ten year old girl. "… You didn't even look at me!"

As if in defeat, Mark lowered his camera and looked at her. "You look great Maureen." This was said with such a lack of emotion that I almost laughed, had it not been for the enormous pout if earned from Maureen.

She sniffled a bit, not over doing it. She really was a great actress, no matter what others may say. "You don't love me anymore Mark!" She slid her hands up to her eyes and leaned over the bench, crying, or what really did sound like she was really crying.

Mark looked at me for just a moment before running to her side, handing me his camera, which to this day still shocks me, and taking her hand in his. "I'm sorry Maureen. You really do look amazing though!" She was still crying, so out of desperation, Mark played that special card that Maureen was looking for. "I still love you." It sounded as if he meant it as a friend, but we all knew better.

She dropped her hands and smiled, jumping up off the bench. "I knew that Mark! I just wanted to hear you say it!" Maureen went on with the task of hitting on some collage kids. They were in a coed group, and from where Mark and I were sitting, we couldn't tell if she was hitting on the boys or the girls. But none of them really looked upset about it.

Mark looked at me. "And then I remember why we're not together anymore." I laughed and handed him his camera, and for a second, he just looked at me, as if he couldn't even remember having handed it to me.

"You know Mark, for a second there, I was really proud of you. You need to learn to stand up to Maureen just a little." I slid off the bench and was sitting in the grass, looking up at him, kinda challenging, ya, but would he step up to the plate?

He looked back at me, and I could just see the timid look in his eyes. It was replaced with a scoff as he picked his camera back up. "Don't give me that look. You know I can't do that."

My voice rose to a sing song tone. "Mar-ky's afra-id."

"No I'm not! I just… don't see the point in starting something up." The blush rising in his cheeks said otherwise though.

"Mar-ky's a cow-ard!" I smiled up at him, to let him know I was joking, but the challenging stare was still in my eyes.

He turned of his camera and looked at Maureen, whose hand was now examining a necklace that was hanging dangerously low into a girls plunging neck line. "Hey Maureen!" Maureen dropped the necklace and looked back to Mark, her face questioning, with just a tiny bit of fear laced in. The fact that Mark was yelling loud enough to be heard from Collins room was probably what had educed the fear. "What time did your girlfriend say she would get back from the class!"

My hand flew up to my mouth as I tried to keep the giggles down. And Maureen's entire face dropped, closely followed by a look of 'ohh my god I'm going to kill you.' Mark, let's just say, had an utterly petrified look on his face as he held tightly to his camera.

As Maureen started marching back to us, I quickly stood up and grabbed Mark, since he was in too much shock to move on his own. "That was amazing Mark!" I looked over my shoulder at Maureen, and quickly began pulling Mark back to the house. "But, umm… ya, let's go."

Maureen didn't speed up, but actually stopped; smiled, waved over her shoulder to the group she was flirting with, and then practically bounced after us. But her eyes still looked ready to kill, she just wasn't showing that off to perspective one night stands.

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

Once we were back to the house, Maureen went into a full out rant at Mark, while he sat huddled in the corner of the couch. "What the hell did you do that for!"

He looked up at me with pleading eyes. "Angel dared me to!"

"I never said dare!"

"Same thing…" He looked back to Maureen. "I'm sorry okay?"

And that was the moment that Joanne and Collins chose to come home. She pulled off her jacket and hung in on the back of a chair. "What are you sorry for Mark?"

Maureen threw her arms over her chest. "I was flirting with a bunch of students and Mark went and told them I had a girlfriend." Maureen obviously failed to see what was so wrong with this.

Joanne shook her head. "Jesus Mark, what the hell were you thinking!" She shot Maureen a nasty look and sunk into the couch beside Mark.

Maureen let her arms fall to the side. "Ohh Pookie. It's not what it sounds like. I didn't even get their phone numbers. We were just talking."

"I believe you said flirting."

"What ever is the world for innocent, friendly chit chat."

"Innocent friendly chit chat it talking about the weather and movies. Flirting is talking about how great someone ass looks in leather. What were you and all these children talking about?"

Maureen pouted her lips, but Joanne just crossed her arms. "Ohh come on! This sucks! Pouting always worked on Mark." She looked at Mark with the same pouty face, and he quickly looked away, not letting her get to him.

"What ever Maureen. I really don't care." But you could tell by her voice that she really did care.

Maureen, however, sucked at picking up subtitle hints. "Great! Now we can just move on and have a great day!" She plopped down on Joanne's lap, and even I could see on Joanne's face that she didn't totally hate this scenario.

I looked at them and then finally realized that Collins was still standing by the door and I jumped up and kissed him. "Hey baby! How was school?"

"Well, you weren't there, so how good could it have been?" He smiled and let his bag drop off his shoulder and to the floor, wrapping his arms around me. "So, what exactly happened here?"

I bit my lip and smiled innocently. "Well, I kind of dared Mark to stand up to Maureen, and he did."

"Really!" He didn't even bother trying to keep the shock from his voice.

I laughed and nodded. "Mmhmm. I was very proud. You would have been too. But Maureen wasn't very happy about it."

Mimi came bouncing into the room with a blue box in her hands. "Come on Angel. I'm bored." She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the porch so quickly I barely had time to ask what was going on.

We sat on the rail of the porch and she opened the blue box, which was full of nail polish and other manicure supplies. She pulled out a bottle of blue nail polish and set it aside. "Talk to me Angel baby." She pulled a file out of the box and took my hand, filing my nails as I leaned back against the rail of the porch.

I looked up at the top of the trees, taking a few breaths before answering her. "I miss New York."

It didn't even break her concentration. "Does Collins know that?"

"I dunno. I guess so… Maybe." I looked back to Mimi, smiling slightly. "I hope not. I want him to be happy, and I know teaching does that for him."

"But he wants you to be happy too."

"Well…" I look back up at the tree. "I'm happy enough. I'm with him, so who really cares what I'm wearing or whatever?"

"You don't?"

"Nope." I lie.

Mimi looks up from my hands for the first time. "Angel. I don't buy that shit for a minute." She replaced the file to the box and grabbed the blue polish, shaking it for a moment before beginning to paint my nails. "I think Collins wants you to be actually happy, not just happy enough to be from day to day."

"Well what do you want me to do Mimi? Collins needs to be here, and if he does, I do, so let's just leave it at that."

I let out a huff of air and hit my head on the rail behind me, expecting Mimi to be do that 'I'm gonna yell at you, but it's for your own good' thing, but she doesn't. She just continues painting my nails. "What would you be doing in New York right now?" She looks at me for just a moment with a curious smile.

"I would be dancing. In all the glory that drag can bring." I know that I have a longing smile on my face because Mimi is looking at me with an eyebrow raised. "What?"

She hits my leg, pushing it over the side of the rail and making me stand up. She has finished my nails, and she picks up her box of polish. "Wait here. I'll be right back." She runs into the house and comes back three minutes later with her purse. She linked her arm with mine, and pulled me off the porch. "Come on. I'm taking you out."

"Where are we going?"

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

Mimi and I walked a good three miles before coming to a store she deemed worthy or accepting her money. I haven't walked that far since being in the city. I miss walking like this all the time. You live in a land with more country, and you forget what it is to have to walk to where you wanna go.

She pulls me into the store and I smile widely as I look at all the bright clothing. I drop my jaw and look at her. "Mimi… I can't…"

She holds a finger up to my mouth and 'shhhs' me. "Angel, I could really care less at the moment about what the school people say. If Angel is depressed, the world is bound to end, and we just can't have that. So we're buying to a whole new outfit, shoes, and a wig. And we may even splurge on make up!" She pushes me through the store. "So you look at stuff, and try on clothed till you faint." She bounces away from me with a smile and begins looking at shoes.

I watch her for a moment before turning to the clothes around me. I didn't think that this was a drag store. More like a –really- good quality costume store, without the costumes. Or it was a costume store and the owner, living in a conservative area, didn't want people to know that.

I picked up a green skirt, and just looked at it for a moment. It hade been month since I had shopped for clothes that weren't jeans or pj's, so I don't think anyone could blame me for the huge smile the crept across my face. I held the skirt in my hands, just looking at it for a moment before I decided that his really was something I wanted to do. I didn't have to wear it out, and therefore wouldn't be compromising Collins position at the school… This could work.

With the skirt, I grabbed a pink shirt that had random green designs all over it, and headed to the dressing room. I put it on quickly and looked at myself in the mirror. God I missed this. "Mimi!"

She came over, wearing black platforms, a long black vinyl jacket, a curly black wig, and dark sun glasses. "What's up? Find something?" She knocked on my dressing room stall, which I opened up for her. "Ohh my god Ang, you look awesome!"

I cocked my hip to the side. "I know, right?" I looked back to the mirror and did a twirl. The shirt waved when I was down twirling. "I think this is the one I wanna get." I looked to her for approval.

She took off the glasses and nodded. "I think that not to would be a crime." She held up her hands, as if her thumb and pointer fingers were guns. "And what do we think of me?"

I couldn't help but giggle. She did look very good in black. "You look awesome babe. You buying it?"

She looked down at herself, sticking her toes out. "I think I may need the jacket." She closed it tightly around her chest, and then opened it again. "Could really have fun flashing someone in this." We both laughed for a moment. It felt so great to be doing this with Mimi again. "And what about the rest of you Ang? You need shoes and tights and a wig still."

I rose and eyebrow at her. "Who said I was done?"

We spent the next hour and a half finding the perfect tights, lime green with different colored designs and patterns all over them, shoes, black whites with white trim up the sides that went halfway to my knees, and a wig, which very similar to my black boded one, only longer and with no bangs on it. It wasn't until after we paid for them, and Mimi got her jacket, that I decided I wanted to wear them home. I messed walking in heels. Mimi waited outside for me while I changed, and with another wave to the store owner, I decided that this really must be a drag store.

I went outside and linked arms with Mimi. "Shall we?"

Mimi threw her purse over her shoulder. "Lead the way my dear."

AVAVAVAVAVAVAVA

We were only three blocks from home when someone who was clearly not watching where they were going bumped into me and dropped all the books he was holding. "Ohh, I'm –so- sorry."

I didn't even get a look at his face as he crouched down to collect his books. I leaned down to help him. "Don't worry about it. Sorry about your books." I handed him his books as we both stood back up.

"No it's fine. They're just…" He stopped and looked at me for the first time. "Hey! You're the girl from the club last night? Angel right?"

"Umm ya…." I looked at him for a moment, trying to place him. "Ohh! Eric, right?"

He nodded. "Ya. Look, I'm sorry if I cam on a bit strong last night. I didn't mean to be so pushy." He did look as if he was actually sorry.

I waved my hand, and Mimi looked as if she was about to laugh. "Don't worry. Everyone seemed a bit out of odds last night." I glared at Mimi, and she instantly shut up. I looked at the books in his hands. "Where are you one your way too?"

"Home actually. I just transferred here." He pointed to the school a few streets down. "I'm a senior at MIT."

Mimi burst out laughing, and I bit my lip, holding the laugh back. "Really? What are you studying?"

"Computer engineering."

Mimi snorted. "Ohh god."

"Ohh really?" I tried to seem interested, rather than amused. "Enjoying your classes?"

Eric looked from Mimi to me, obviously not understanding what was so funny. "Umm, ya. But I had all technical classes today. Tomorrow I'll be getting into the more theoretical side of it."

Mimi didn't bother hiding her amusement. "Ohh really? That's soooo interesting."

"Are you taking Computer Aged Philosophy?"

He took a piece of paper form his pocket and looked it over quickly. "Ya, first thing tomorrow. Why?"

I smiled softly. "My boyfriend teaches that class."

Eric's face fell a bit, understanding why we were so amused. "Ohh… Is he gonna be mad at me for hitting on you?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but Mimi threw her arms around my shoulders and shrugged. "I don't know. He very well could be. Professor is very protective of his boyfriend."

I just looked at Eric with a slight smile as his face drew together in confusion. "What?" It did take him a minute to catch on. "His boy…" Realisation. "Ohh…" Shock. "Ohh!" He looked me up and down. "You're…?"

I nodded happily. "Mmhmm! I am. But it's very flattering that you couldn't tell!"

His face was still pretty blank. "Ohh… Well, you're welcome then I guess…? I need to…" He shifted his books from one arm to the other. "I need to get going. I have… Umm, tons of work to catch up on."

Mimi smirked. "Ya, you don't want to fall behind on your first day."

"Okay then…" He moved past us and began walking down the street, his head lowered.

I waved and called after him. "Okay, we'll talk to you later!" He didn't turn around, but I could see him nodding. I turned back to Mimi, and we both broke out laughing. I threw my arm around her waist. "Come on, we'd better get home."

"Mmhmm… We have fun stories to tell!"