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Subordinate
Another wonderful fan fiction by Elyse. Bravo! This may soon become one of her series. This story (so called short story) was for school and the characters were not Sydney and Vaughn, yet based off them. I later changed the names.
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There comes a time in everyone’s life when their course must deviate from the one set forth for them. There is a time when you set off on a journey, alone for the first time. And though people are there to help you along the way, ultimately you decide your own fate. Even with these thoughts, it has been a controversy for dozens of years: is the human race independent or codependent? There are people to help you along the way, but do we need them to survive? Sydney Bristow was a prime example of why people couldn’t decide. She seemed like an average fourteen year old, insecure and shy, at her wits end with her parents, and maintaining a B-average in school. She walked the walk and wore the clothes to fit into school. To anyone looking in from the outside, it would seem like Sydney was a very normal girl. But she was not an average teen.
Of course, if you knew Sydney like her best friend Michael Vaughn did, you would know that the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” was very true in Sydney’s case. The bottles of Prozac and Celexa would prove to you that the brown-eyed, brown haired girl was anything but normal. There was a battle waging within her, one that you could not see by looking at her Abercrombie tops and American Eagle pants.
Sydney’s day, the day in which her life would change forever, started like any other day. She woke up to a fight between her mother and father over her little sister’s dance recital. Trying to get out of the house as fast as possible so that she would not end up in the middle of the argument, it didn’t even hit her when she overlooked her medicine. And that oversight would be her ultimate downfall.
Running to make it out of her gated community and to the bus on time, she wondered what school would be like today. The most expensive school in the area, it was situated right along the coast and filled with media moguls’ children armed with beepers and cell phones. A school where government was taught by episodes of West Wing and gym consisted of surfing on the Pacific was bound to have something interesting happen everyday.
At first it wasn’t noticeable. Science didn’t seem any harder; the math problems weren’t any longer on that fateful day. There weren’t any big flashing lights when Elizabeth made the comment that triggered Sydney. It was a normal day all around. The sun was shining, the palm trees swaying in the comforting breeze brought relief in the sweltering heat. The school was littered with people, swarming like locusts in the heartland. It was a normal day for everyone around her.
It was during lunch that Sydney realized that she had forgotten her medicine. Walking out and on to the school’s boardwalk was like walking though a mosh pit at a rock concert; it hurt and you often ended up with someone’s elbow in your jaw. The boardwalk was jam packed with students trying to stuff Doritos and pretzels in their mouths while on their cell phones talking to their agents. It was then that she caught sight of a blonde head standing out above the crowd walking towards her. Her best friend Michael Vaughn knew there was something wrong, it was written across his face. It seemed to Sydney that at times he had a divine sense of what was going on, and could often predict what was wrong with her, even if he couldn’t see her. Michael’s face crinkled up, his forehead covered in wrinkles when he was nervous, giving him a look of maturity. His bright green eyes enhanced his features, and his surfer’s tan always looked good. Every girl in the school liked to hang on him, but he always stuck by Sydney’s side.
Sliding up to him, she tried to scream over the noise to tell him what had happened. “I forgot my medicine today,” she shouted. She could barely hear herself think, let alone talk.
“Sydney, you can’t do that. Why don’t you call your mom and get her to bring it to school?” He yelled back, trying to make himself heard. The dull roar of the people around him drowned out the sound of his voice.
“I can’t, she’s taking the Princess to dance and then swimming. She doesn’t have enough time to bring me something,” Sydney responded, adding emphasis to words to make her statement sarcastic. She knew it was true though; her parents never had enough time for her. It was always about her little sister.
“Does the world have to revolve around the Angel? Why can’t your mom ever pay attention to you?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t ask. But it doesn’t really matter. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I feel great. Well, not really. But I’m fine,” she immediately responded, fooling no one.
“Sydney, you’re not okay. Really, how about I call my mom and have her come get you?” Michael responded, truly concerned about Sydney’s welfare.
“I’ll be fine. Elizabeth just said something that really ticked me off, but I will survive. I promise. It’s not like I’m going to go jump off a cliff or something from missing a day of medication.”
“Promise? Promise me you won’t hurt yourself Sydney. Promise me right here and now.”
“I promise you Michael. I will not hurt myself,” Sydney said confidently. She didn’t know how wrong she was.
The subject of Sydney missing her medicine was dropped, and they continued on their separate ways during the course of the day. Elizabeth’s previous comment, however, was not dropped from Sydney’s mind. Instead it was played over and over in Sydney’s head. By the time she arrived at her neighborhood at the end of the day, the statement had left a profound impact.
Looking back, the whole incident may have been prevented if Sydney’s parents weren’t so overwhelmed with their other daughter’s life. Unfortunately, it was not prevented, and Sydney ended up outside of Michael’s house in a stolen BMW, suggesting that they run away. Michael knew he couldn’t leave her side when she was in such a state, and his loyalty resulted in two fourteen year olds in a stolen BMW driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, “free at last.”
Driving along the dark curves of the lonely road the next morning, the taste of her breakfast, a cherry Icee, still in her mouth, Sydney thought about how messed up her life had become. She was on the run with the dawn’s bright light beaming across the valleys to her east, but she could not enjoy it. She could not enjoy anything.
“Sydney, can we go home now? Have you worked it off yet?” Michael’s voice came, snapping her from her reverie.
“No Michael, I’m not. How about if we never go home?” she asked bitterly.
"What are you talking about Sydney?”
“Wouldn’t it be cool just to disappear? I doubt anyone would miss us,” Sydney said, her face lighting up with the possibility.
“Sydney don’t. Don’t even start. Everyone would miss you. I would miss you,” Michael replied, worried about where the conversation was headed.
“What if I drove over the edge of the road? Dare me to?”
“No Sydney. No you can’t. Sydney, please, whatever it is that is so terrible, it really isn’t. I promise. Nothing is ever as bad as it seems.”
“You have no idea Michael. No idea! You live in your little perfect world, with all your perfect people. It isn’t like that for the rest of us. Your parents didn’t forget you on your birthday. They don’t accidentally call you the wrong name. Your parents show up for school plays. Mine don’t. I don’t think they even know who I am.”
“Your parents are crazy Sydney. They just aren’t normal parents. I promise you, there is something wrong with your parents.”
“Maybe there isn’t Michael. What if there’s something wrong with me? I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t what they wanted. I’m not perfect. I’m no good Michael. Don’t you see? They are good parents. Jaycee gets everything she could ever want because she’s a good daughter. I’m not. I’m not worth it.”
“Sydney you are worth it. You’re worth everything,” Michael pleaded.
“No I’m not,” Sydney stated, a certain finality in her voice.
It became apparent that Michael’s pleas didn’t make an impact. In the early morning light, with only the soft waves as witnesses, Sydney pulled a hard left and the car dove across the edge of the road, tumbling down the side of a cliff. And there was no more pleading in the car. All remained quiet forever more.
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