Chapter 3:
Willow gave a friendly pat on the back to the mute Spike, who was still sitting at the table and staring at the senior poll in the school newspaper. He hadn’t spoken a word yet or even reacted to his father’s teasing remarks.
“Well I’m off…see ya Spike… Willow said openly before turning to address only Giles, “Tell me how things work out with him when he comes back down to earth.”
”Yes…” Giles nodded as he glanced back at his son, “I believe cursing and throwing of objects will be coming soon after he comes to his senses…”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less than that…I’ll check on Buffy—make sure that she didn’t murder Anya or Andrew and Jonathon down in the press room.” Willow said as she took one last look at Spike before exiting the library.
With one comatose son and one highly amused father occupying the room, the library was back to being silent. Giles leaned back against the front desk with his mug in his hand, watching the wheels slowly turn through his son’s mind.
“You could do worse you know…I always liked Buffy.” Giles smiled.
Spike snapped out of his daze at that, blinking a few times before turning to his father, “What? WHAT?!”
“I’m just saying…Buffy’s a sweet girl…a spitfire like you…stubborn as hell like you…match made in heaven if you ask me.” Giles shrugged as he continued smile.
“Match made in---you got to be kidding me? Summers? Summers and me?!!!” Spike stood up and knocked over his chair, threw the newspaper down to the ground, and started pacing and digging his fingers into his bleached locks.
“Oh please William, I know you thought about it…”
”Never! No, never…” Spike shook his head in the same disgust that Buffy was displaying earlier, “We…we…we would kill each other before I even got a chance to ask her out!”
Giles raised a brow, was his son admitting something?
“Perhaps if you two had walkie talkies on the date you wouldn’t cause each other much physical harm…” Giles suggested with a shrug, he was having too much fun with this new turn of events. After all these years of hearing whining from his son about ‘Buffy stole my this…’ and ‘Buffy kicked my that…’, the old man could finally get satisfaction out of teasing Spike to death.
“Ya…” Spike muttered softly. There was a pause for a moment and then he shot his head up and said, “HEY!!!”
Giles shook his head and chuckled.
“Da’ this is not funny…this…this poll is going to destroy my life! Drusilla and I are already on the rocks with our relationship, this fuckin poll is going to tick her off something crazy!”
The old man bit his tongue; he promised himself that he wouldn’t get involved with son’s affairs with the gothic girl that took advantage of Spike every chance she got. Giles tried to play ‘helpful father’ once before and got punished by his son by not speaking to him for a nearly 3 weeks. I guess this is why Giles was a little bit pleased that this poll turned out the way it did, if Drusilla got upset then the two could split and Spike could realize that there were other nice girls out there that wouldn’t take him for granted…girls like Buffy. Giles liked Buffy, despite what she said about Spike earlier. Maybe the old librarian liked her even more because of what she said about his son---that she wasn’t afraid to stand up against the young boy when he was being a jerk. Giles respected her and hoped just a little bit that this future daughter in-law comment would someday actually become reality. The old Brit smiled at the thought of Buffy part of the family and being the mother of his grandkids. With Dru, thinking about her being part of the family…well, Giles always got a cold chill run up his spine at the thought.
“Drusilla will get over it.” Giles waved his hand in the air, brushing off the matter that he cared less about.
“No she won’t, have you met Drusilla?”
“William, this isn’t your fault, your peers voted for you and Buffy. Not you alone.”
”Right…right…” Spike nodded, that explanation was perfect and he knew it couldn’t go wrong. “It’s not my fault…it’s everyone else’s…” he mumbled to himself.
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Spike’s hand instantly went to his burning cheek.
‘God she knows how to slap’ Spike thought, ‘…defiantly going to leave a mark for the rest of the day.’
“Baby, this isn’t my fault…what did you want me to do, go around to the whole senior class and tell them to not vote for me and Summers? This took me for a loop too, I didn’t see it coming.” Spike argued.
“They must have had a motive for their actions, ever think of that? There must be a reason that they voted for you and—and HER!” Drusilla spat out the word ‘her’ in disgust.
“Well I certainly didn’t do anything!”
”You pick on her! Tease her…you LOVE to tease her specifically!” Drusilla snapped.
The couple was out behind the bleachers on the football field. Always around lunch time the two of them would sneak off from their friends for a quick smoke and some kissing. Today, they skipped lunch, mostly to avoid Angel and Buffy, and decided to discuss this poll privately.
“So what? I’ve been teasing her ever since I’ve met her!”
“Ever think WHY you do that? Did you tug her pigtails, push her down, and run away when you were kids too?”
As a matter of fact, Spike did do that a number of times. However, he didn’t think that was worth mentioning to Drusilla right now as he was getting chewed out. The fact that he did commit the crime would leave him girlfriendless in five seconds flat.
“No!!” Spike lied, “We…we’re just friends Dru…like I’m friends with Willow, Xander, and Angel…”
”I don’t remember you teasing Willow or taking Xander and Angel to the sixth grade dance!”
‘Uh-oh.’
Spike knew that stupid dance would come back and bite him in the ass.
“I only took her because her date got sick…” Spike explained, “My dad practically made me do it!”
In less than five minutes he told his girlfriend two lies already. ‘Good Spike, dig yourself in a deeper hole that you’re already sitting in…heck, fill the hole with quick sand to put you out of your misery.’
“Don’t lie to me William…” she said sternly, using his given name to show that she was serious about this. “Are you saying that since the day that you moved to Sunnydale that you never once thought of her more than a friend?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1989….
William hated America. He hated American television, American sports, and American kids. He hated how all the neighbor kids on the block made fun of how he talked.
“I’ll say bloody anytime I want…” he muttered to himself as he kicked his soccer ball against the garage door once again. However, one burst of energy that came out of his 8 year old body cause him to kick the ball a little bit too hard. The ball bounced off the garage door and went flying quickly to his face. Poor William didn’t have a chance to duck.
The rim of his glasses scratched his cheek as they flew off his face. William was now on his back and looking up at the sunny summer day sky.
‘Can’t get much worse than this…’ he thought to himself.
The sound of laughter erupted from behind him, girlish playful laughter.
William rose up off his back and turned around to see a girl, about his age, on her green bike.
“What are you laughing at?” he grumbled as he eyed her little ponytail and blue dress with red polka dot leggings.
“You…” she continued to laugh as she rode her bike a little bit closer to him and stopped.
“It’s not funny…you, you…you stupid bit.”
”What’s a bit?” she stopped laughing and scrunched up her face in confusion.
“It’s what you are…”
The little girl stuck her tongue out at him before pushing off on her bike with one foot and riding circles around him, “Well you’re a booger brain.”
“Well you’re a nit…”
”Cheese head…”
”Bitch…”
Buffy gasped, “You said a bad word.”
”I don’t care…”
”I’m telling my mommy on you.”
”I don’t care…”
Buffy didn’t think it was fun to tell when they didn’t care, “Well…I challenge you to a bike race…”
“I’m not playing with you!”
“What are you, afraid?”
William narrowed his eyes and got up off the pavement, forgetting about his scrap on his cheek and his bent glasses. “I could beat you any day of the week.”
“Prove it…prove it…prove it.” Buffy sang as she started to circle him with her bike once again.
William stepped in her path and held her handlebars in place so she would lose her balance and fall over. He narrowed his eyes at her and asked, “What do you want to bet?”
”Bet?”
”Ya…if I win I get something of yours…”
“No!” she argued.
”Then I’m not playing…” he shrugged and went over to get his ball with a smile.
“You’re no fun!” Buffy called out after him as he moved toward his front door.
William turned around to look back at her, “Do we have a bet?”
Buffy bit her lip, “What do you want if I lose?”
William walked closer to her and said, “Five bucks.”
Buffy’s eyes widen, the wager was too steep for her. “No way…that’s my allowance for a whole week!”
”See ya later then!”
“Wait!” she called out and stopped him, “Fine…”
”And if you win, what do you want?”
Buffy smiled, if she knew boys, and she most defiantly did, she knew something that would make him cringe, “You have to kiss me.”
William shrugged casually, “Fine.”
Buffy instantly frown, ‘He doesn’t care…?’
*~*~*~*~*~
The race was tight; it came down to mere inches.
“Pay up Summers.” William said as he held his hand out. After learning his new neighbors name he preferred calling her by her last name rather than her first. It was something he did with all his friends back in London, however this was the first time did it with a girl.
“I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”
”No way…I want it now…” he argued.
”Tomorrow William…”
“No…now!” He held out his hand.
Buffy paused, bit her lip, looked down at his palm waiting for his money, and then looked back at his sweaty and red hot face. Without hesitation Buffy reached out, grabbed William’ faced, and kissed him on the lips. When she pulled back she saw he didn’t look disgusted but a little stunned.
”I’ll pay you tomorrow…bye William.” She said as she pushed off her bike and made her way home.
*~*~*~*~*~
Present Day…
Spike never asked for his five bucks after that day. Even though he was young at the time he considered what Buffy gave him a much better reward than money—his first kiss. From the ages of eight to eleven, every time the two of them had a race or a bet William would request a kiss instead of cash as a reward.
The two of them bickered like they always did, the kiss never really changed that; but for some odd reason neither one of them decided to change the reward of their bet. After they reached eleven, the kisses stopped as soon as they went through their ‘I hate girls’ and ‘I hate boys’ stage.
Spike looked back up at his girlfriend, trying to shake the fuzzy memories from his mind that he seemed to have forgotten until now. “Ya Dru…I never thought of her as more than a friend…”
*~*~*~*~*
Buffy skipped her lunch to avoid the stares of her peers in the cafeteria, to avoid Angel, and most of all to avoid Spike. At the moment she was hiding in the corner of the library, buried deep in the stacks of bookcases, looking through the senior poll ballots that she got from Anya.
Not one of the sheets had a name on them but Buffy didn’t really care, she had to see for herself that her classmates actually voted for her and Spike. Out of the 295 students in her graduating class, she only pulled out 70 that didn’t vote for them for ‘Most Likely to Marry…’
Buffy sat the papers down beside her and thought for a moment, “Xander…” she muttered when she remembered something.
In hurry Buffy picked up the pile and started flipping once again to find one specific sheet. She remembered a month ago when everyone was voting at lunch that he circled his name for nearly half the categories.
Buffy stopped when she saw his ballot.
Then she remembered Willow voting for Oz for ‘Best Smile’. Buffy search back through the pile of 294 and only found one that had Oz nominated for ‘Best Smile’.
With her two friend’s ballots pulled, knowing without a doubt that they were theirs, Buffy sat them on the ground in front of her.
Under ‘Most Likely to Marry…’ both her friends, her closest dearest friends that loved her, they both voted for her and Spike.
TBC…