Buffy Summers was just about to leave the school building, happy to finally be able to go home. About a month ago, her mother had decided that it would be a good idea to leave LA for good and start a new life here in this little town called Sunnydale. Buffy had begged and pleaded with her, not wanting to leave her school and all her friends. Back in LA, Buffy had been one of the most popular girls in the whole school, and her mother had promised that she would make lots of new friends here in no time. Yeah, right…
It didn’t take long before she realized that her mother couldn’t have been more wrong. As the new girl at Sunnydale High, she was a nobody. The first day, no one even bothered to talk to her between classes. Then one girl – Cordelia Chase – had walked up to her and introduced herself, offering to show Buffy around. She had been relieved, thinking that maybe she would fit in here after all. Cordelia had even gone so far as to ask Buffy to come to a party with her, and she had been thrilled at the idea of possibly making new friends. But as soon as they had gotten to the party, Cordelia had left Buffy by the door to go and hang out with her real friends.
The next day, Buffy had questioned Cordelia about it. The dark-haired girl had crossed her arms over her chest and explained that she had never intended to hang out with Buffy all night. ‘I figured that if I brought you to the party, you’d get some friends of your own and get off my back’, had been Cordelia’s exact words. It turned out that she had only approached Buffy because one of their teachers had insisted. Buffy had been more hurt than she wanted to admit, but refused to let it show. She couldn’t understand how the people here could be so different from those in her old school. Then she realized that it wasn’t exactly true. Back in LA, Buffy had been one of the popular kids, one of those who’d get to decide who was cool and who was not. And here, others had already decided for her.
Eventually, Buffy had managed to get a couple of friends of her own, or two, to be more accurate. Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris – also considered outcasts, like her. She really liked her new friends, a lot, and she would just have to accept the fact that she would never be Miss Popular at Sunnydale High. At her old school, she had been the girl everyone looked up to. But deep down, she had known how shallow her friendships with the other girls had been. Here, for the first time, she felt like she had friends she could really talk to, and not only about clothes and boys. Willow and Xander actually seemed to care about what she had to say.
Now she grabbed her bag and closed the door to her locker, hurrying towards the large doors leading out from the main building, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, and found herself standing face to face with Riley Finn. Buffy gave him a questioning look. Riley was in her English class and as far as she knew, he didn’t even know she existed. So what was he doing here?
“Hi, Betty, right? The new girl? I thought I should introduce myself.” Riley smiled, politely. “I’m…”
“It’s Buffy. I know who you are, we’re in the same class. And I’m not exactly new anymore, I’ve been here for a month.” Buffy was not too impressed by this guy so far. She hoped he would just go away so she could go home. It had been a long day, and she was tired. Not to mention the fact that she had way too much homework to do before her mother would allow her to meet up with her new friends.
Riley’s smile disappeared and he looked a little taken aback. Then he let out a nervous laugh. “Right, of course. Listen, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out with me some time this weekend. I’d really like to get to know you better.”
Buffy hesitated. Riley was one of the popular guys, and going out with him would probably do wonders for her social life. But she wasn’t really interested in him. Sure, she didn’t even know him, but he seemed… boring. And it didn’t seem right to go out with a guy just so people would notice her. Back in her old school, she hadn’t cared much about other people’s feelings, but something had changed since she had moved here. Now she realized how cruel people could be. And she didn’t want to be like that anymore. Yet, a part of her still longed to fit in.
She took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Riley. Can I think about it? I have a lot of homework, and…” She blushed, suddenly feeling like the most boring person ever. Homework?! How cool was that? Why couldn’t she just have said that she had made other plans?
Fortunately, Riley didn’t seem to care. “Sure, no problem. I’ll tell you what…” He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “How ‘bout I’ll just give you my number? Then you can call me when you’ve made up your mind.” He wrote the number down and held out the paper, which she accepted after a moments hesitation. Then he smiled again. “See you around, Betty.” Before Buffy got the chance to say anything, he was already gone.
Buffy shook her head as if to clear it, trying to take in what had just happened. Riley Finn had just asked her out. It wasn’t like she had actually decided to go, but still, she couldn’t wait to tell Willow. No matter what she may think of him, this was definitely one of the most exciting things that had happened to her since she had moved here. Except for one thing, of course, nothing could compete with that. There was this guy she had met at the party, and for some reason, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind since.
Unfortunately, the guy in question didn’t seem to have a clue about how she felt. That, or he was simply not interested. Buffy used to see him around and she had even talked to him a couple of times. But he always seemed nervous around her, looking around as if he was afraid someone would see him talking to her. Buffy couldn’t understand why. She had never seen him talking to anyone else, and when they had a class together, he always sat alone in the back. For some reason, it didn’t seem like he had any friends at all. So why did he act the way he did, like he was ashamed of being seen around her?
Deciding that trying to figure him out would only give her a headache, Buffy sighed and turned around, eager to get outside. That was when she accidentally bumped into someone, and managed to drop all her books on the floor. Torn between yelling at the person in front of her for getting in her way, or apologizing for being such a klutz, she finally realized who it was. The irritated expression on her face disappeared, and she couldn’t stop the silly smile from appearing on her lips. “Hi, William!”
He quickly dropped to his knees and picked up her books, then handed them to her with a shy smile. "Here. Sorry 'bout that." Then he opened his mouth, as if to say something more, but seemed to decide against it. Instead he just turned around to leave.
"No, it was my fault. I..." Buffy stopped and her smile disappeared when she realized that he was already gone. Letting out a miserable sigh, she slowly started walking, finally leaving the school building. Alone.
TBC