Chapter Eleven
Primadonna

SYDNEY WALKED INTO the kitchen that morning to see her parents dancing in the kitchen, Jessie's Girl playing loudly on the Alexa. Sydney hadn't seen the room look as bright as it did right now, mostly because she had gotten use to always waking up alone, so everything to her was dull — but now sun reflected off the white walls in the kitchen and her parents were here with her, and everything felt normal again.

Seeing her daughter come into the room, Caroline stopped dancing and she smiled. "Good morning, sweetheart!" She said.

"Bonjour, princesse." Said her father. Good morning, princess

"Bonjour," Sydney said back and took a seat at the island.

Caroline sat a plate full of eggs and bacon in front of her. "Avez-vous manqué notre cuisine?" Did you miss our cooking?

She laughed. "La cuisine de papa m'a manqué, maman." She corrected. I missed dad's coming, mom

Alex chuckled and Caroline's jaw dropped. "Maintenant, maintenant, Sydney, elle peut cuisiner."
Now, now, Sydney, she can cook

"Oui, au micro-ondes." Yeah, in the microwave.

Her father laughed again. "You two are so alike it's scary." Caroline grumbled and leaned off the counter.

"Sydie, what are you doing today?"

Sydney finished her eggs. "Everyone's taking the PSAT practice test today at school." She answered.

He furrowed his brows. "And you're not?"

"Have you seen my grades?"

Alex hummed. "Good point." He said and started doing the dishes.

"Well, if you're free today," Caroline trailed and stood in front of her, leaning back on the counter, "I was thinking we could spend the day together."

"Just us?" Sydney pointed between them.

"I have a few errands to run today so I figured I'd leave the morning to the two of you." Said Alex.

"We can do whatever you want," her mother insisted, "go shopping, see a movie, whatever."

It wasn't like she needed any more clothes, but Sydney missed spending quality time with her parents. "Okay, yeah. That sounds like fun." She responded with a smile.

"Yay!" Caroline beamed and grabbed her empty plate. "Okay, go get dressed. We'll leave soon."

Sydney quickly went back to her room. As she raided her closet, her phone started to ring, and she smiled when she saw that it was Miguel. "Bonjour, beau." She said happily. Good morning, handsome

She heard him laugh. "What does that mean?"

"Use your imagination." Sydney answered and started changing clothes. "Did you sleep okay?"

"I always do when I dream about you."

Sydney laughed. "You could barely speak in full sentences when we met and now you're using pick up lines on me?"

She heard him laugh as well. "Maybe your confidence is rubbing off on me."

"Ah yeah, sure." She grinned and sat down to do her hair. "Do you have the practice test today?"

"Yes," Miguel groaned, "I can't believe I have to spend my whole morning there."

"Aww, poor thing." She teased him.

"How come you aren't going?"

"I took the test my freshman year."

There was a pause. "Seriously?"

"The teachers decide I had the grades to take it earlier," Sydney said casually, "do you have plans for after it's over?"

"Uhhh, I don't think so. You wanna hang out?"

"Of course I do. I'm spending some time with my mother today but afterwards, I'm all yours.

Again, Miguel smiled. "Great. Ugh, I gotta go. I'll see you later?"

"Definitely. Au revoir." Sydney blew a kiss into the speaker and hung up. Good bye

"You kissed her?"

Miguel and Demetri sat at the same desk, working on their practice test. He had yet to tell anyone about his kiss with Sydney but since Demetri was the first person he saw, he came clean. Miguel quickly shushed him. "Yeah, last night after the dinner." He whispered with a boyish smile.

"You're telling me you made out with the most popular girl in school?"

"We didn't make out. It was our first kiss."

"How long did it last?"

Miguel looked appalled. "What?"

"If it was 5-10 seconds then it wasn't a make out, but anything 1-2 minutes is definitely making out." Demetri explained, which confused him even more, because Demetri didn't know a thing about girls.

"How do you know this?"

"TV, duh."

Miguel's eyebrows went up. He looked ahead of him and sighed. "It was two minutes."

Demetri refrained from yelling and patted Miguel on the back with excitement. "That's my boy! You are officially the man!" He exclaimed quietly. "So are you guys together now?"

"I don't, uh, really know." Miguel admitted with a frown.

"What do you mean you don't know? You met her parents and you kissed. What more is there?" Demetri pressed.

"She just hasn't said anything about it yet. I don't want to push her into something she's not ready for."

He rolled his eyes. "Dude, girls never make the first one. You gotta be an alpha here. Just ask her out." He insisted and went back to his test.

Again, Miguel was confused on how the hell he knew any of that stuff. But it got him thinking. Alpha? Was Sydney the type of girl that wanted him to ask her out? Is that what all women wanted? Would she even say yes if he did ask her?

Sydney's arms felt like they were going to break from all of the shopping bags she was carrying. One thing she and her mother had in common was when they started something, specifically shopping, they didn't stop. They shopped till they dropped and by the time they were done, Caroline had went home to take a nap.

She knocked on Miguel's front door, struggling in the process, and he answered with a brace filled smile. "Hello there."

It was so fast that she still had her fist held up. "How'd you know that I was here?" She questioned.

"I, uhh, may or may not have been waiting for you." He responded coolly.

Sydney smiled. "Aww, how cute are you?" She said and walked into his home.

Miguel's eyes widened at all of the bags she was carrying. "Wow. Did you clear out the entire mall?" He laughed.

"Almost. Mum has a lot of store accounts."

"I'm not shocked."

"Where's your mum and grandmother?" Sydney asked when she didn't see Carmen or Rosa.

"Oh, they're both at work. It's just he," Miguel explained, his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. "So, uh, what did you get? Clothes, clothes, and clothes?"

She laughed at his joke. "Clothes, clothes, and clothes." She repeated. "Not for me though. These are for you."

His eyes widened. "F-For me?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Sydney said and made her way down the hallway to his bedroom.

Miguel quickly followed her.

"But first I need to do some investigating." She added and sat all of the bags on his bed.

"Investigating?"

"Investigating?"  He questioned.

Sydney turned to him. "You just sit your pretty self down and let me work my magic." She declared, tapped his nose, and turned around to walk over to his closet.

Miguel slowly, and very nervously, sat down on his bed.

The eyed the distasteful clothes. Half of her knew that Miguel's closet would be full of T-shirts and ugly sweaters but the other half of her didn't think it would be this bad. "Definitely a no."

Miguel's mouth gaped when she threw it on the floor.  "Um, Syd—"

Sydney pulled out a Star Wars shirt. "What are you? Twelve?" She said distastefully and threw the shirt on top of the sweater.

"That was my favorite shirt. . ."

"No. . . No. . . No. . ." She continued throwing clothes on the ground.

Miguel just stayed quiet and trusted that she knew what she was doing. She also scared him.

The Brit finished rummaging through his closet and turned to him, clapping her hands. "Okay, now that we're done with that. . . " Sydney stood Miguel up and rummaged through one of the bags, pulling out a white button up shirt. "Here."

He took the shirt and looked at the price tag, almost having a heart attack. "Sydney! This was $90? No,  please, I can't—"

She held up her hand. "Nope. I will do what I will with my money and I chose to spend it on you then kindly be quiet and accept it." She declared.

"But—"

"Mig—"

"But you don't have—"

"Miguel—"

"This is so much—"

Sydney rolled her eyes and grabbed his face in her hands, bringing him forward into a hard kiss. He was startled at force, but Miguel soon relaxed next to her and their lips moved together seamlessly. All at once, Sydney pulled back and her hands remained on his face. "Are you done?"

"Is that another trick question?"

She laughed.