The next morning started bright and early with the bugle calling reveille at 6:30 am. Buffy rolled out of bed to help get her campers ready for breakfast at 7. She had five very bouncy ten-year-olds who were all pulling for her attention at way too early in the morning. Even so, she had a smile on her face the whole time. She loved kids, and was really excited to be their CIT.
She headed over to the dining hall with her five little campers in tow, with the counselor, Cheryl, trailing behind. She had just flown over from England, and was still a bit jetlagged.
Entering the dining hall the girls followed Cheryl to the cabin’s table. The counselors sat with the campers, and helped serve the food, while the CITs got to sit at their own table, and served themselves.
Buffy sighed as she took a sip of her morning coffee. “Ah, caffeiney goodness,” she hummed with a smile on her face, and closed her eyes enjoying the aroma and the effects of the coffee.
Willow giggled, used to Buffy’s morning rituals, while Faith just cocked her head to the side staring at Buffy oddly.
Buffy finally opened her eyes to see Faith studying her. “What?”
Faith’s odd look turned into a smile. “Nothin, B. You’re just amusing that’s all.”
“Glad I could be of service.” And with that Buffy went back to her own little world containing her and her coffee.
Buffy finally joined the world of the living again after a second cup, and the girls started chatting idly throughout the meal about their new campers. They seemed to be in luck, with each getting a good group of girls.
As breakfast started winding down, Buffy looked over to Faith, saying, “You ready for our morning run?”
The three girls got up and started heading out of the dining hall, and back towards their cabins.
“Sure. Where did you have in mind?”
“Well, I got soccer second period up on the front field, so I thought we could just run laps there today.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll meet you up there after inspection?”
“Yep.”
And with that, the 3 girls parted ways to help their campers clean the cabins before morning activities, and get them on their way.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After the last camper left the cabin, Buffy was finally able to start getting herself ready. She threw a gray sports bra on under her white t-shirt, and slipped on her favorite pair of green Soffe shorts. She put on her running shoes, grabbed a bottle of water, and gathered up her shin guards, knee socks, and cleats for later, and was out the door.
When she got up to the front field Faith still wasn’t there, so she set her things to the side and started to stretch. About five minutes later Faith joined her, and the two girls casually talked while stretching.
Buffy got up, took off her shirt, and was ready to start.
Faith smirked at Buffy.
“What?”
“Didn’t take you as someone who worked out so ‘scantily clad’,” Faith laughed at her own comment.
Buffy rolled her eyes, while pulling her hair up in a high ponytail. “It’s hot out, there’s no one here, and it’s time to work on my summer tan. Why, Faith? Shy?” Buffy challenged.
Faith rose to that challenge, whipped her own shirt off, wearing only a black sports bra similar to Buffy’s, and raised an eyebrow to her.
Buffy just rolled her eyes again, and started jogging around the field. Faith caught up to her after a few strides, and the girls jogged in comfortable silence for a bit. Then, Buffy asked Faith about Boston, and Faith asked about California, and the two girls started to find how much they had in common.
Buffy was in the middle of talking animatedly about her obsession with vampire and supernatural movies, when they were stopped by something blocking their way. The girls looked ahead, and noticed the maintenance men’s truck was sitting right in front of them. The girls stopped jogging and stared at the truck wondering why it was just sitting there.
Buffy looked towards the driver’s seat, and saw her hotness monster staring at her. She cocked her head to the side thinking, ‘Oh my god, is he staring at me? Wait, why is he staring at me?’
And staring he was. Spike was looking Buffy up and down very slowly. She was coated in a light, shiny sheen from her workout. He started at her legs: her slender, tanned, feminine legs. Then, he worked his way up to appreciate her visibly taut stomach that was pushing in and out with the exertion from her running. Next his eyes landed on the swell of her breasts peeking out from the top of her sports bra. He unconsciously licked his lips. His eyes finally settled on her face where she had a deep scowl planted as she glared at him. It only made him hotter to see her mad.
Buffy may think this guy was the hottest thing on two feet, but the way he was staring was not ok. She might ogle, but she had the decency to do it when he wasn’t watching, not like he was looking at her right now like he wanted to eat her. And when he licked his lips, she thought she was going to smack him. When he finally stopped looking at her boobs long enough to realize she had a face, she was beyond pissed.
“Rude much?” spat Buffy.
“Jus’ enjoyin’ the view,” he said with a leer and a raise of both eyebrows.
Despite her anger, Buffy turned away from his piercing eyes and blushed. Then, inwardly kicked herself for having that reaction after his rude behavior. She turned back to look at him, scowl back in place, to see him still leering at her.
She was about to say something else, when Faith addressed the guy sitting in the truck bed interrupting her thoughts.
“Hey there dark chocolate,” Faith said oozing sex appeal.
The guy just sat there stunned not saying anything. Buffy’s mouth gaped open in shock. And then Faith winked at him. He gulped.
Buffy was just staring at Faith in disbelief, when she was brought out of her thoughts by the engine starting up. She instinctively looked back at the driver’s seat.
Spike leaned out of the window a little and said, “See ya ‘round kitten,” and winked at her before driving off.
Buffy was gob smacked by the guy’s behavior, and Faith’s. Faith just had a smug look on her face.
After standing there for a few moments in silence, staring in the direction the truck had gone, Faith elbowed Buffy to get her attention. She nodded ahead of her to indicate that they should resume running. Buffy shook her head to clear her thoughts, and then began to run again. She would think about all of this later, for now she was going to enjoy her run, and wait for the campers to show up.
Faith left early to go change for waterskiing, leaving Buffy alone with her thoughts, while she continued running. All she could think about was his stupid sexy looks, his annoyingly perfect cheekbones, and his obnoxiously swoon worthy British accent. She finally sat down next to her stuff to throw her shirt back on, and change into her cleats and shin guards. She huffed and puffed the whole time, trying not to think of the hot blonde maintenance man.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Soccer went by in a blur, as well as her next activity, swimming. All she could think of all day was the way Spike ogled her body. She went back and forth between angry and flattered. She didn’t know what she felt. All she knew was that every time she thought about him, she got all tingly. ‘Stupid butterflies, what do they know?’
When it was finally lunchtime, Buffy threw herself down at the table in a huff. She told Willow all about what happened, and when Faith finally joined them she was still ranting. Buffy had decided on the fact that she was angry and was holding on to it by a thread. She was being completely irrational, and complained through the whole meal about how rude he was. Willow and Faith tuned her out, and ate their lunch in silence nodding to Buffy when appropriate.
The girls were thankful for rest hour, to finally be away from Buffy, who had really worked herself into a snit. She tried to write a letter to her parents during the downtime, but couldn’t concentrate.
It was finally time for her fourth activity of the day, gymnastics, where she finally decided to put the issue behind her and focus on the campers. ‘Hard to spot the little girls when your mind is elsewhere’ she thought.
Faith noticed her friend had finally calmed down and was smiling again. Glad to know that her moodiness was over, she decided it was safe to talk to her again.
The girls talked some more while helping the campers with their cartwheels until it was time for Buffy to head to archery.
Buffy may be action girl, but when she came to camp she found her true talent: archery. She was the best archer at camp every summer for the past 6 years, after Willow convinced her to sign up for it their first summer on a whim. She was deadly accurate with a bow and arrow, and had amazing concentration, which was odd for Buffy since she was Miss. Impatient.
This year, she got to teach the archery class because she was so good, and she was beyond excited. Her surliness from earlier was completely forgotten in the excitement of teaching the young campers all about the art of the bow and arrow.
Time flew by and before she knew it, it was dinnertime. She met up with Faith and Willow outside the dining hall with a smiling face. They walked inside and sat down at their usual table.
They ate their meals chatting idly about the day’s classes and such. Luckily, Buffy never brought up the menace from the morning again, and stayed in high spirits. That was until she heard the shriek from Cordelia Chase.
Right when Faith was regaling them both about what one of the campers did during gymnastics, they heard Cordy scream. It was this high-pitched nauseating sound, kind of like the way Harmony talked.
Everyone turned to look in her direction. Cordy was sitting there fuming, and her left shoulder was covered in spaghetti sauce. It appeared that when the server brought over more food for the table, she’d tripped and got some on Cordy. Poor server, she had no idea what she was in for.
Everyone else had turned back to their conversations, but Faith, Willow, and Buffy’s eyes were glued to Cordy, and the server, who they were positive was about to get a tongue lashing for what was most likely an honest mistake.
Under her breath, but still loud enough for the three girls to hear Cordy said, “You idiot! You got food on my brand new white silk shirt! Do have any idea how bad that stains?! Your job is simple. You serve the food to the table, not on the people paying your paycheck! Get me some napkins and a sponge now, and I won’t have you fired for your complete incompetence!”
The slim brunette server apologized profusely saying it was an accident, but Cordy glared daggers at her. Kennedy snapped at her, literally, and said, “Hey, moron. Napkins. Sponge. Now!”
The server scampered off, almost in tears to grab napkins to clean Cordy off, and a mop to clean up the mess. Buffy was fuming. It was an honest mistake. The girl tripped, she didn’t do it on purpose, not that it made a difference to Cordy. From the look on Faith’s, and Willow’s faces, they were thinking the same thing.
They saw a different server come out with napkins and a mop, a blonde one this time. That meant that the brunette was most definitely crying in the back because of Cordy’s harsh words. Having been on the wrong end of that more than a few times, Buffy’s heart went out to the girl.
She whispered to the others to stay behind after the meal was over and everyone had left. When everyone was gone they snuck back into the kitchen to see if the girl was ok.
They found her sobbing her eyes out, still apologizing, surrounded by the other 3 servers and Lorne.
Buffy had pushed open the swinging door slowly, as to not startle the group. To get their attention she knocked on the door she was now holding open to announce their presence.
“Hey,” she said tentatively, not sure if their presence would be accepted, or wanted, for that matter.
The blonde server, who had come out after with the napkins and sponge for Cordy, beckoned them forward. “Come in. It’s ok.”
“Hi, Lorne,” Buffy said quietly to the camp cook, and Willow gave him a small wave.
“Hi girls,” he said lacking his usual bravado.
They all stood around for a few moments: the servers and Lorne trying to comfort the upset girl, and Buffy, Faith, and Willow standing their awkwardly.
Buffy finally broke the silence saying quietly, “You know it wasn’t your fault. It was an accident. Things happen.” She slowly walked towards the small group. When she got the brunette’s attention she gave her a small smile.
The brunette sniffled and smiled back. “Thanks,” she said in a sweet, southern accent.
“No problem. Cordy’s a bitch anyway. Besides who the hell wears silk at camp? I mean we’re in the middle of the woods for goodness sake,” Buffy said incredulously, but with a hint of a smile.
That got a giggle out of the girl, and the friends surrounding her sighed and smiled toward Buffy, grateful for easing their friend’s pain.
Buffy took another step forward, “I’m Buffy, by the way. Founder of the ‘We Hate Cordy Club.’ Would you like to join? We have buttons.”
The girl laughed again along with her friends and Faith. Willow leaned over to whisper to Faith, “No, we really do.” This made Faith laugh even harder.
When the laughter died down, Buffy pointed to Willow and Faith, “This is my best friend Willow, and she’s Vice President, and our new friend, and newest member, Faith.” They both smiled and waved to the girl.
“I’m Fred. It’s really nice to meet y’all. It was so sweet of you to come back here and check on me, even if I was a klutz,” Fred said sadly.
“Um, ya. I walked into a tree two days ago. Don’t worry about it.” Buffy blushed thinking again of why she’d walked into that tree.
With that statement, one of the girls gasped. She was about medium height, with dirty blond hair. She seemed sweet, but the gasp made Buffy feel uneasy.
“What?” Buffy asked.
Tentatively, she said, “You’re the girl Spike was talking about the other night. The girl, down by the docks, right?”
Buffy nodded dumbly. She couldn’t believe it. She was so embarrassed. She couldn’t believe he told everyone about her. She felt so stupid. She had no idea what he’d said, but she bet he had laughed about it, and mocked her without shame. She was so mortified. She lowered her head and turned bright red from shame.
The girl noticed Buffy’s change in demeanor, and mentally hit herself in the head. She knew what this girl was thinking. She was 16 once. She took a step around Fred towards Buffy. “It’s ok. He didn’t say anything bad. He just told us what happened, and then he told us how he saw you in the field today.” Buffy’s head sunk lower in horror, even as her heart rate sped up while the girl spoke to her. “I just didn’t realize he was talking about you. It’s not often that a girl catches Spike’s eye,” and with that Buffy’s head whipped up.
She turned around to look at Willow and Faith to see if they heard what she had just heard. Willow’s mouth was hanging open, and Faith was smiling, but the look in her eye said she was just as shocked. She turned around to face the girl again.
“Uh… I… uh, what’s your name? You didn’t give me your name did you?” Buffy panicked.
“I’m Amy.”
“A-Amy. Can you repeat what you just said? Please?”
This question put a smile on Amy’s face. She could tell that Buffy was into Spike by her reaction. If she wasn’t mistaken she would swear Spike was just as into her by the way he went on an on about the silly incident. She could totally tell. Again, she had been 16 once. She remembered that look when lusting after the bad boy. Except, Spike wasn’t really as bad as he thought he was or looked, for that matter, but she wasn’t going to spill his secrets to this little slip of a girl she didn’t know. “You heard me right, but that stays between us girls.” Buffy nodded dumbly again, still in shock.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Lorne decided to break the tension. “So, my little truffles, what are you up to for the rest of the evening, besides hanging out with the help?”
“Hey!” Amy scoffed.
“Oh relax, Amy,” another brunette said. She was standing next to the other blond who they still hadn’t met. “I’m Amanda by the way, and this is my girlfriend, Tara.” Tara waved and smiled to the three girls.
The new introductions knocked Buffy out of her haze, and she smiled and waved back. She would think about the implications of Amy’s comment later. Pushing that to the back of her mind, she said to Lorne, “We have the night off. It’s the counselors’ night for evening activities. We just wanted to see that Fred was ok, which we’re glad you are.”
“Again, it was awfully sweet of y’all, comin’ to see me.”
The three girls smiled at Fred. “No problem. It was really nice to meet you all.” Willow and Faith added in their agreement. “But I guess we should get back to our campers now. It’s getting kind of late.” What Buffy really meant was that she had a lot to think about and discuss with Willow and Faith, and she needed to get out of there before her head exploded.
“It was nice to meet y’all too. Guess we’ll be seein’ you tomorrow for breakfast?” The three girls nodded.
“Well then, don’t be strangers,” Lorne finished with a beaming smile.
The three girls smiled back, and waved as they left.
“They seem really nice,” Fred mused.
“Ya. I’m sure Spike can’t wait to hear that we met the infamous ‘blond chit’ he keeps rambling about,” Amy said.
“Amy, you are so bad. I can’t believe you told that girl Spike’s been talking about her. He’s gonna kill you, you know?” Amanda added.
“Eh, I’d like to see him try, the big softie.”
All of them shared a giggle, including Lorne. They were all used to Spike pretending to be a badass by now. They’d been together a month already. They had to get there early to set up the camp, and at least a few of them had caught him reading poetry or spouting out lyrics on a whim. It was adorable really, but he liked to pretend he was big and bad and they let him. That’s what friends did. And with that Amanda, Tara, and Amy went out to wipe down the tables, while Fred stayed back with Lorne to help clean up the kitchen.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It had been quite an eventful day. Buffy still couldn’t believe the roller coaster it had been, and it was only the first full day. From the morning’s run in with Spike to Amy’s comment that night, Buffy was thinking in overload. She had a lot to mull over. When she got back to her cabin she’d laid down even though it was still early, and waited for her campers to come back. When they returned they told her all about the games they played on the field with the rest of the younger campers, and how great their first day was. Buffy was glad the girls seemed to be having a good time, but even Cheryl noticed that Buffy was a little out of it. When Cheryl asked if she was alright, she shook her head, and indicating that she’d talk to her about it later. At that, Cheryl had nodded and retired to her room for the evening.
Buffy got the girls ready for bed, and then laid down again staring up at the ceiling. She now knew his name was Spike, and how weird was that, but also that he had talked about her. Apparently he had talked about her in a non-negative way, or so it had seemed by what Amy said. She was so confused, but she couldn’t help the little smile that graced her face as she fell asleep, a million questions scrambling around her head.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey sorry this took a bit. I was having a bit of writer's block about the ending of this chapter. hope you like it :)
Betas: PaganBaby and Spikelissa----big smoochies to them for getting this back to me so quickly
Banner: xaphania *hugs*
Disclaimer: see ch. 1
Betas: PaganBaby and Spikelissa----big smoochies to them for getting this back to me so quickly
Banner: xaphania *hugs*
Disclaimer: see ch. 1
Chapter End Notes:
First big Spuffy interaction next ch. promise!