William hadn’t been able to stop grinning and chuckling inwardly since his chat with Miss Summers about Jessica. He found it kind of funny considering they were meeting to discuss Jessica and her antics, but Miss Summers didn’t sound like one of those young mothers that didn’t care about their child and just wanted to ignore the issues. She sounded like a realistic and caring woman that was well aware of Jessica’s antics and while probably tired of them, would not stop working on them.
He supposed it was funny to have garnered so much from one conversation, but William prided himself on being pretty good at reading people, and in a sense, he already felt some kind of connection to Miss Summers and her daughter. Hearing their story, his heart went out to not only Jessica, but to her mother as well. He wanted to help, quite simply.
His teenage years – the formative years if you will – were marred with bad decisions and rebellion. He simply hadn’t wanted to do what was expected of him. He’d wanted to be his own person, live his own life, and not have it be dictated by what his parents wanted for him. He’d continuously felt they shoved their wants and needs for him down his throat – he wasn’t living his life, he was living theirs.
William was Spike once upon a time, the punk name he’d given himself to piss his parents off even more. He had to laugh at the kids now who thought they knew what it meant to be punk. Though, he had to laugh at himself even more now—he wasn’t even around during the actual punk movement so it wasn’t as if he were an “original”. However, he knew what it meant to take a stand against something, to passionately hate the hand you’d been deal and rile against it.
In short, he understood Jessica. And, because he understood her, he felt for Miss Summers. He’d lost his mother during his days as Spike and he’d rued her loss ever since. Consequently, it was her death that put him on the straight and narrow. He wanted to make her proud, he wanted to make up for how he’d been such a miserable son in the hopes that she’d be looking down upon him, happy with him once more.
He gave up his drinking, smoking (well, he hadn’t given that up much yet), and partying hard with friends that didn’t give two shits about him – and a girlfriend that couldn’t be faithful if her life depended on it. He gave up slacking off in school and set about turning his life around.
Spike became William once more, and he studied hard in school with the intent of making it back to the States to teach and to live. He’d visited the States once with some friends on a whim, and loved it. He’d had an experience that he’d never forgotten and vowed to come back once he got his teaching degree.
And now he was where he wanted to be, feeling his mother smiling down upon him, his father quite happy with him and finally, he happy with himself.
Looking up from his desk, he spied a blond woman coming towards his door and figured it had to be Miss Summers. Jumping up, he made his way over and opened the door for her. He had remembered how to be a gentleman.
“Come in,” he said cordially, not really looking at her until the words, “Miss Summers such a pleasure to meet you, I’m William Mayne,” had come out of his mouth.
Standing before him was the whole reason for his intense longing to get back to the States for the past fifteen years.
The nerves took up residence in Buffy’ stomach as soon as she stepped out of her car and into Sunnydale High’s car park. This school always brought her mixed emotions; the most pressing of those being fear. She hated the fact she could not afford to move school districts; she knew that it must be tough for Jess to go to the same high school as her mom. That fact was compounded by half the teachers that had taught Buffy, were now also teaching Jess.
To say it was a scandal that Buffy had fallen pregnant was a huge understatement. It seemed from the moment she stepped out of her OBGYN, the rumour mill had started spinning at top speed. At least she had been able to tell Riley before anyone else had gotten to him.
The sadness at his loss still hit her every now and then, such as when Jess would have a parent teacher night, and she would think how Riley would have reacted having to sit with his old teachers and hear about his daughter’s progress. He would have been such a good father.
When she told him about the baby he broke the mold of most teenage parents to be. He had hugged her tightly and promised to support and love her and the baby for the rest of their lives. Buffy couldn’t be too angry with Riley; he did after all keep the promise. She just didn’t realise that the rest of his life would only be another three months.
The day Riley died was a blur; it was the night that they were to start Lamaze classes. Riley had been so excited to start, that he had been reading up on all the different birthing techniques and had written out a list of questions to ask the teacher. That was Riley to a tee. One hundred percent committed to everything he did. That’s why is seemed so weird that he was late to pick her up for class. She had called his home and he had left ages before. She sat on the porch waiting, but he never came to pick her up.
The drunk driver had run the red and Riley never had a chance. His parents had given her some of his belongings as a keepsake. Amongst which was the list of questions he had written out for that night. In her darker moments during both the pregnancy and after the birth, when she felt alone with no one to care for her, she would read the list as a reminder that at one time, someone had loved and cared for both her and her child.
She took a deep breath as she walked up the steps of the school. Memories of being spat on and things thrown at her as she had climbed the same steps almost sixteen years ago flooded her memory. It had been tough to go back to school not only pregnant, but after the death of Riley. So many people had already branded her a slut, but after his death they also called her a murderer as well. For Riley’s sake, and for the sake of her unborn child’s future, she shrugged it all off, held her head high, and walked the halls of this school.
She did the same today. Sure she wasn’t the world’s best mother to Jess, but she always tried her best and that at least counted for something. She braced herself for the worst as she made her way to the English department office to see Mr. Mayne. Putting her game face on she knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
As she opened the door she kept a hold of it as she almost lost her balance as she looked into the eyes of her daughter’s father.
“Miss Summers, such a pleasure to meet you, I’m William Mayne.”