A/N: Another short one but we only have two more chapters left until this fic is over and we move on to the next in the series.


Chapter Eleven: Winds of Change

May 10th, 1999

Michael had been working the past few months as a bagger at the small grocery store down the street from the High school, the only place willing to hire a just-turned-fifteen-year old from the wrong side of the tracks.

It was close enough to the school that Raelyn would just wait in the Computer Lab for him to get off work if she did not have any tutoring appointments, and Alex had taken to waiting with her when he did not have other plans, at least on the days when Nick was not waiting with her.

As much as Alex might wish it otherwise, Nick and Raelyn were still dating and she seemed happy, too happy for him to reveal his jealousy. That day though she seemed worried and distant, and she had barely replied to any of his attempts at conversation.

"Hey, Rae Rae, what's wrong?" he asked finally, turning her chair so she had to look at him.

She looked at him with a faint smile; he knew she found the nickname amusing, but the smile didn't reach her eyes and her face quickly turned serious again. At that moment her eyes were a deep shade of blue with barely any hint of green, and he had the feeling that she was evaluating him, judging him on some internal meter the way Liz's sister sometimes did.

When she spoke, she reached up to tug at her curls, a nervous habit he had only seen her resort to when she was particularly stressed. "Our foster father – he…he's not very nice. Mr. Evan's, Isabel and Max's dad, has offered to help us try for emancipation."

Alex wanted to pursue her comment about Hank, but also didn't want to push her back into silence; it was rare for her to open up even that much and he was glad that she trusted him enough to speak at all. "Are you going to go for it?"

"I don't know," she said, chewing on one dark red curl with obvious distress. "It would mean we'd have to get jobs with more hours in addition to school, and we wouldn't be able to afford an apartment in a nice area of town. It would be better than the trailer park, but Michael doesn't like the idea of me being home alone or having to walk alone if he has to work."

She trailed off before attempting a faltering smile. "It's only three more years anyways."

Alex impulsively pulled her to him for a hug, worried even more when he could feel her trembling against him. "If you need anything, anything at all. Just let me know."

Raelyn sniffed slightly and then pulled away, her smile a little less shaky. "Thank you Alex. I will."

Suddenly all signs of sadness disappeared from her face and a grin appeared that, if he had seen it without knowing what she looked like before, he would have assumed it was real.

"Hugging my girl Alex?" came Nick's deep voice from behind him, the tone teasing, but making Alex tense all the same. It bothered him that Rae apparently did not want to show Nick what she really felt, and at the same time made him happy that she was willing to show him the real her.

He saw the faint pleading look in her eyes so he turned and smiled at the other boy, doing his best to appear genial. "You know me, always up for a hug! You next?"

Nick laughed. "I think I'll pass this time buddy." He walked forward and took Raelyn's hand. "I just came to offer this little lady a ride home."

"Thank you, Nick," Raelyn said softly before shooting Alex one last grateful smile. "I'll talk to you later Alex."

Alex nodded and waved as they walked out of the classroom, his brown eyes dark with worry. There was more going on than Rae was telling him but he did not know how else to find out. It wasn't like he could ask Michael.

Or could he?

The only other option was Rae's best friend, Isabel, and while he thought there was more to the beautiful blonde than most people saw, he had to admit that she intimidated him more than Michael, as unmanly as that might be to admit.

Decisions, decisions.

May 30th, 1999

Alex had finally gotten the courage to talk to Michael and approached him at lunch. The much larger boy was sitting under his usual tree, scowling at anyone and everyone who looked his way.

The glare focused with laser like intensity on Alex as he stood hesitantly in front of the brooding young man, but before he could bring himself to open his mouth, that glare shifted to something behind him and softened unexpectedly.

Raelyn appeared and sat down next to her brother, resting her head on his shoulder and looking unbearably sad. Alex ignored Michael's warning glance and knelt down in front of her. "What happened, Rae?"

Her chin tilted up and she appeared to notice him for the first time, while both boys noted the tears sparkling in her eyes. "Nick's going back to Florida at the end of the school year next month. He…he told me that he didn't want to wait until then to end things, that it would be harder."

Michael growled and wrapped his arm around Raelyn, pulling her closer to him even as his eyes restlessly searched the quad looking for the idiot that had just dumped his sister, all irritation with Alex forgotten as the other boy murmured comforting things to her.

Nick never should have asked her out in the first place if he was going to leave, and he would make sure he pointed that out to the boy, at length.

Michael finally located him sitting across a table from Liz and her sister. To his surprise Liz was gesturing angrily at her cousin, her voice clearly raised and the occasional finger in their direction indicating just what she was yelling at him about.

He smiled; he knew he liked that girl. Maybe once Nick was gone and the memory of Michael pounding him into a bloody pulp had faded, he would try to have a real conversation with the brunette. Maybe.


A/N: Have no fear, Michael will work at the Crashdown and sooner than in Canon, I think, but I have some important plot related reasons for him not working there yet that will be revealed in the next part of this series, not this story.