The rest of the break from school passed and Nathan found him back in the halls of Western Summit High just a little too soon. He hadn't seen Sydney before class started, and she got stuck filling in on someone else's lunch duty in the cafeteria, but he smiled when his phone rang at the beginning their planning period.

"Hey," he answered, "I was starting to think you weren't here today."

Sydney's voice was bright. "I'm very much here and very much in need of help. Gotta sec?"

"Be right there." Nathan got up from his desk and went across the hall. When he reached her doorway, he heard her mumble a curse at her computer screen. "Uh…bad day?"

She sighed, defeated. "I'm either crazy or stupid – I much prefer crazy – but look at this. All I want to do is enter grades, but I swear the software is mocking me."

Nathan walked up behind her and looked down at her screen…and accidentally, down her sweater. His eyes couldn't help themselves. From a straight forward perspective, it was an innocent, caramel colored v-neck sweater with no intentions other then to be warm and fashionable, but from where he was standing, it was all but begging someone to look down and catch a glimpse of ample cleavage. He quickly looked back at the screen, ashamed of himself. He caught onto the problem right away.

"Well, I can promise you're not stupid," he said. "We didn't exactly get the best of the best when we got licenses for this program." Without thinking, he placed his hand on top of Sydney's and moved it, along with her mouse. He pressed down gently on her finger, causing the mouse to click and realign the box that contained the grades. "Glitchy." His voice was suddenly a bit hoarse. He cleared his throat and casually backed away.

"Then I guess between glitchy and crazy, glitchy can win." She smiled, happy that her problem was solved. "How was the rest of your time off?"

Nathan sat on the edge of her desk and looked at her over top of his glasses. He sucked air harshly between his teeth. "I am so sorry about Christmas Eve. I can't imagine what you…"

"Nathan, no," Sydney interrupted. "I'm happy that you showed up there rather than, well, you know, and I'm the one who should be apologizing. I went into some weird drama queen mode and…" She laughed nervously. "That whole 'splaying' comment couldn't have been more…" Her cheeks were flush. "I…" Tension was sucking the air out of the room.

Nathan diverted his eyes, trying to find anything that could make things feel normal. He spotted a piece of paper on her desk. "So, they conned you into chaperoning, huh?"

Sydney let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "Yes!" She composed herself. "Ah, well, not really. I volunteered. A few of the girls in my sixth period class asked if I help and…I'm not used to mid January dances…"

"A few years ago the students voted on when they wanted the semi formal and they decided on January to be neutral…no overdone Christmas themes and no extra drama around Valentine's Day."

"Makes sense." Sydney toyed with a pen. "I'm helping out with some things after school this week and I want to be there for it next Friday, you know?"

"Much to Susan's disappointment, I have to be there next Friday." Sydney shot him a questioning look and Nathan shrugged. "Gotta keep making good impressions."

"Oh, right…" She stood up and began to erase the chalkboard. Anything to alleviate some of the nervous energy she had coursing through her.

"Sydney?"

"Hm?" She didn't turn to look at him.

"Are we good? I mean, we're both being a little…"

All too quickly she turned. "We're fine, why wouldn't we be? We're two people that said some stuff and were feeling a little low for different reasons and we're friends and we're good…" She sighed. "The English teacher's grammar isn't the best right now, but we're good." As punctuation to her thoughts, the bell rang and her next class began to filter in. She smiled at him.

"Lunch tomorrow?"

"Of course."

After a few days, the tension between Nathan and Sydney had dissipated and they were back to "normal." The following week and it was like nothing was ever said. It was Thursday evening when Sydney didn't hear the doorbell at home…nothing unusual with music blaring in the kitchen – this was how she motivated herself to plow through the dishes in the sink. Arlen left the comfort of the couch and answered the door, surprised to see Nathan on the other side.

"Nathan?" Arlen asked, a polite smile on his face. They had gotten to know one another a little bit on Christmas Eve after the "conversation" had happened. "She's here, so she can't be in any new sort of trouble, right?" He winked. "Unless she did something bad at school today and…"

Nathan laughed, interrupting Arlen's musings, and held up her cell phone. "It was ringing on her desk."

"Aren't you a sweetheart? Come on in." Arlen stepped aside.

"Um, it's no biggie, I can just drop it off."

"Nonsense, you can give it to her yourself." Yes, Arlen was trying to, or at least hoping to, help his friend to think about moving on with this man. "She's in the kitchen, go on back."

A little confused, Nathan walked inside and headed toward the back of the house. When he got to the threshold of the kitchen, he couldn't help but feel a tad invasive. Sydney had her back toward him and was loading the dishwasher. She was wearing black yoga pants and a gray shirt with neckline large enough to hang off of one shoulder exposing a bright pink bra strap. It wasn't her attire that made him feel as he did, as she was fully dressed…no, it was what she was doing while she was loading the dishwasher. With the iPod dock blaring in the kitchen, she was singing and dancing as she did her chore.

"Say you're just a friend, I'm a little liar…when we play pretend body is on fire…" Aside from the Britney Spears song choice – Arlen had reloaded her iPod recently – it was the dancing that really got to Nathan. He wished he could have unseen what he saw, as he knew he would end up pulling it into a conversation somehow or using it as a mental pick me up. To try to cut down on any embarrassment to her, he backed out of the room without saying a word.

"Going already?" Arlen asked, covering his disappointment.

"Uh…you know, I really didn't want to interrupt her."

Arlen laughed. "Bad white girl dancing or slutty dancing?"

Nathan toyed with Sydney's phone. "Um…white girl." He smiled just a little too widely, trying his very best not to laugh. "I don't want her to know that I saw."

"Oh, it's no secret. She knows she doesn't have any rhythm unless she's dancing like she's in heat." Arlen blushed. "That wasn't exactly appropriate, huh?" Nathan sort of shrugged at his question. "Anyway, no worries, she's aware that she's dance challenged." He made a gesture with his hand that said, "Go on."

Nathan turned and made his way back to the kitchen. He paused for a moment when he heard the beginning chords of a different song. It was slower…sexy. He peeked in and saw that things had switched up a little in that room. Sydney's body moved in an almost feline manner as she was wiping down the counter. Her voice was low and as close to seductive as it could be in her current setting.

"After school, walking home…fresh dirt under my fingernails…and I can smell hot asphalt, cars screech to a halt to let me pass…and I cannot remember what life was like through photographs…trying to recreate images life gives us from our past…"

He felt almost guilty watching her and not saying anything, but he couldn't help himself. She was only cleaning the kitchen and this was…wrongly exhilarating. She seemed free from things that had been weighing on her for the last couple of months. Cleaning the kitchen never does anything for me.

She had finished the counter and was washing her hands. "…but I cannot forget, refuse to regret, so glad I met you…" She grabbed a towel and dried them. "Take my breath away, make everyday worth all of the pain that I've gone through…" She put the towel down and spun around. Nathan began to panic, but saw that her eyes were closed. He continued to gaze at her, his face growing warm as she turned away from him again, her hips swaying in perfect time with the music.

The beat changed slightly, becoming more seductive. She began to move backwards, her hands going through her hair. "The rhythm of her conversation, the perfection of her creation…" She was getting closer to Nathan and he found himself frozen. "The sex she slipped into my coffee…" She was against him now, but assuming it was Arlen, she ground her backside against him. "The way she felt when she first saw me…" Her hands went behind her, presumably to her friend. "Hate to love and love to hate her…" It then registered that the height and body type weren't right and she stopped moving as Adam Levine continued to sing from the corner of the room. She turned and her mouth fell open.

"Uh…hey." It was all Nathan could muster. Sydney stood silent, her face turning crimson. He held up her phone. "You left this on your desk…" Still nothing. "If it makes you feel any better, this kicks your white girl dance in the ass."

"Oh, God…" They were the only words she could muster. I'm gonna kill him! She saw Arlen standing just beyond the threshold, a guilty smile on his face. "Nathan, if we could never ever speak of this again…"

Nathan forcefully sucked air between his teeth to emphasize himself. "Gee, I dunno," he teased, "it's kind of too good to forget about, isn't it?"

You really are adorable when you smile like that, aren't you? Fuck! Life was so much easier a couple of weeks ago…. Wasn't it? "I'm sorry for nearly molesting you in my kitchen," she finally blurted.

"No harm done," he replied, his laughter waning. "I promise, not a word about it." He held out her phone again and Sydney took it, her cheeks still flush. "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah…" She walked him to the door. "Thank you for bringing this, you didn't have to."

"No? What if I had to call you due to a snow delay or something?" He winked at her.

"Oh, you're absolutely right then." She smiled fully. "Tomorrow morning then – and I'll be expecting snow." She watched him leave and found herself wishing that she had been put across the hall from an old woman smelling of mothballs and not him - it would have made life less…complicated.

She went upstairs to find the guilty party that let Nathan in the house to begin with and she heard his voice coming from Jess' room. "…and she just danced right up, um, on him, well sort of anyway."

"She's still too focused on John's leaving." Brynn's voice came now, her voice sad. "There's what seems to be a great guy right in front of her and…"

Sydney started to walk into the room, but her words made it there before she did. "And even if she does think she might be starting to like him, it doesn't mean the sentiment will be returned." Brynn's head was resting on Jess' shoulder, both sitting on the bed, and Arlen was leaning against the dresser.

"I don't have that worry at all," Arlen said firmly. "He's definitely interested, but I get the feeling he's a little out of practice in that area."

Sydney shook her head. "It doesn't matter, guys. My track record is poor and I'm pretty sure it's public information by now. Even if – and I use that word loosely – he did for some reason," she shook her head, knowing she was talking as though she was still in junior high, "'like' me, we work together and we're both on our own kind of probation…it would never be a good idea in a hundred years."

Arlen smiled and looked as innocent as he could. "Good thing I'm not worried about a millennia passing."

Sydney groaned and went to her room, closing the door behind her. She found her thoughts becoming consumed by the history teacher…and wished more than anything in the world that she could think of something, or anyone else. A couple of hours passed as she sat on her plush window seat watching the snowfall increase dramatically. The glow of her television reflected off of the glass, but she hardly noticed it.

It took her a moment to register that her phone was ringing, but she picked it up and couldn't help but smile despite herself when she saw Nathan's phone number.

"Hello?"

"Good thing I brought you your phone today," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

"Oh yeah?"

"Just got the call, two hour delay already."

"Well, Mister Gardner, it is a good thing that you stopped by then, isn't it."

"See you in the morning," he said, sweetly. "Just a little later."

Sydney hung up and ran her hands through her hair. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

***Seal it With A Kiss – Britney Spears; Seven Miles From the Sun – Maroon 5**