The grip Greg had on Brittany's hand tightened when they stood outside the door that led to his homeroom and he clung to her shirt for comfort. She chuckled lightly and gave his head a small pat before kneeling down to his height so that they were facing each other.

"I-I'm scared..." he whimpered.

"I know your nervous but just think of it as any other school day except that your in a grade higher than last year." She told him and he sighed uneasily and his bottom lip quivered as if he were on the verge of crying. What Brittany hated more than crying was a child crying and seeing this young boy cry right in front of her brought tears to her eyes.

"Don't cry, Greg. Your in the fifth grade. Your a man now." He wiped his tears with the sleeves of his thin sweater and his emerald eyes met Brittany's comforting hazel ones.

"R-Really?" He questioned shakily.

"Really. Greg, your on the top of the school. You totally own the fourth graders now." Greg beamed at the burst of power he felt spread across his body and there was a spark of confidence in his eyes as he grabbed the straps of his backpack.

"Your right! I'm on the top of the school!" He shouted and a few startled teachers stepped out of their classrooms to inspect the sudden commotion and stared at them with stunned looks before settling back into the room to proceed with their lesson.

"You sure are. Now, don't get into any fights, alright?" He nodded before eagerly marching himself inside the room. Before selecting a place to sit, he turned to Brittany with a frown darkening his pale complexion and he discarded his backpack onto the floor before rushing into her arms.

"What's wrong, Greg?" Brittany asked with her voice slightly breaking and she quickly cleared her throat so that no one would notice.

"I'm going to miss you." Even though his words were muffled into the soft material of her shirt, it still brought tears to her eyes and they silently rolled down her flushed cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his small figure and held him closer to her body.

"I'm going to miss you too, buddy." She whispered. He pulled away from her and let his thumbs gently brush her tears away before planting a soft kiss on her cheek. He darted back into the room without looking back because they both knew that if he did, he would never return to the school.

She rose off the floor and dragged her feet down the hallway with her head hung low and her fists jammed into the front pockets of her jeans.

Maestro smiled warmly when he noticed Brittany making her way inside the entranceway of his home and he drew himself from the bottom stair step after waiting for her for over a half an hour.

"How did it go? Was he nervous?" He asked her as he approached her. She let out a small whimper before rushing into his arms for comfort and he was taken aback by her sudden sadness.

"He's going to miss me!" She shouted into his shirt and Maestro chuckled lightly at the minor problem that he figured he could solve simply by distracting her from the boys being at school. She was crying to him like a wife would do to her father after dropping their husband off on their first day of school and they both knew that she would get over it the next day when he would take the bus to school instead of being walked with an escort. She rose her frowning eyes up to his smiling ones and he rested his forehead upon hers.

"I'm going to miss him too..." she sobbed. Maestro smiled gently.

"Don't tell me your going to die from separation anxiety." He teased and she gave his arm a playful slap.

"I'm serious. He made me cry twice over there, Maestro. Twice!" She exclaimed as she held up two slender fingers to his face. Maestro placed a light kiss on both of her fingers and held them to his smiling crimson lips.

"Poor baby." She pouted.

"Michael, I'm serious!" She shouted exasperatedly and his eyes widened in shock at the name.

Did she just...? He felt as if it had been centuries since someone had last acknowledged him by that name.

"Brittany, you called me..." His voice trailed off into nothingness as he gazed deep into her eyes as if he were trying to look within her soul to discover her deepest, darkest secrets.

"Oh. Sorry. I meant Maestro. I don't know where that came from." She said veraciously as she shrugged her shoulders and she began to muse to herself about any Michael's that she had encountered before.

"No. Don't be. That's my name." Her eyes widened.

Michael? That's his real name?

"Say it again, please." he pleaded softly into her ear and she could feel his soft lips tenderly caress the shell of her ear and he could feel her shudder against him.

"Michael." She breathed. His lips found hers and he kissed her urgently as if his life was on the line. Brittany suddenly pulled away and shocked him.

"Then why do they call you Maestro?" She asked and this question caused him to sigh.

"Because I'm a connoisseur, Brittany." Her head cocked to the side as a clueless look sparked in her eyes and he chuckled lightly as he realized that he was going to have to explain it to her more throughly.

"Over the years, I have been called a lot of names. Blotches, freak, weirdo, Big Nose, AppleHead," he chuckled, "but Maestro was the one I truly liked. I grew fond of that name. I was always the first to conduct people once they hit a wrong note and people teased me about it...a lot. The name got out into the town and then I became the Maestro, the man who conducted and created music. As the years passed by, I was slowly beginning to forget about my true name. It was like Michael never even existed. But hearing it now makes me feel like I was reborn into the world. I feel so renewed, so alive."

He released a happy sigh and felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off his chest after speaking to Brittany about this but an even more dreaded burden weighed like sacks of stones on his shoulders.

"Oh, well, I guess I'll call you Michael now." She said shrugging and he shuddered at the sound of his name being spoken from her lips.

I love the way she says my name. Michael knew that he was never going to tire hearing his name from Brittany. He began to wonder how she figured out his name. Maybe it was a mistake. I know I have never told her my true name before. Has someone told her?

As these unreasonable questions wandered through his head, Brittany was beginning to wonder the same.

Maybe it's because he looks like a Michael. She figured as she shrugged her shoulders. Whatever the reason is, it happened for a reason.