Chapter 2
After English class Miss Baker had asked Buffy to stay behind. They’d spoken about her behaviour and how she really must stop talking in class. Buffy had apologised, agreed, and promised not to do it again. Then she had left.
“Buff, what took you so long?”
She groaned. “Leave me alone, Angel.”
The jock only laughed and fell into step next to her. “Come on, Buffy. Don’t be like that; it’s never bothered you before.”
She abruptly stopped and turned to him, placing her hands on her hips. “Yes it has. You’ve just never asked. God, do you know how much of a bitch I must seem to him?”
“Why do you care? It’s just William Giles.”
“You don’t even know him.” It was a growl.
Angel was getting angry now too. “Let’s not pretend that you ever took the time of day to stop and talk to him. Face it, you’re just like me. All you care about is being popular and cheering on the football team like a good cheerleader should. Get over this whole ‘red cross’ phase, before you find yourself without a boyfriend.”
She didn’t want him to know how upsetting that was, she she crossed her arms over her chest and smirked. “Wow, that must be the biggest speech you’ve ever given. Well done.”
“I’m serious, Buffy.”
Staring up at him, Buffy said each word slowly, as if talking to a child. “So am I. Stop hitting William.”
Another laugh and Angel raised his hands up in surrender. “Fine, whatever you say. I’ll stop hitting William. Just get off my back.”
“I have cheerleading practice. I’ll see you later.”
Even before she could warn him not to even bother trying to kiss her he’d pulled her against him and crushed his mouth to hers.
There was no point trying to fight him, and she almost sighed in annoyance as she was forced to stand and take the torture.
Alright, Angel was a good kisser…hell, he’d had all the practice one person could need, but she was still pissed off at him. She wasn’t sure if she even liked the person he’d become…or, if the person she’d become liked the person he’d always been.
It wasn’t the first time she’d notice the change she was going through.
* * *
“You talked to Buffy?”
William shrugged. “Miss Baker made her sit with me, it wasn’t as if she just thought ‘ooh, I know, I’ll sit with William Giles’. It was nothing.”
Xander nearly spat out his food. “Nothing? William, you’ve been her secret admirer for…what? Four years?”
William just shrugged and began to pick at the side of his book. “We just talked about Dickens.”
With an incredulous look on his face, Xander banged his head against the table, then suddenly sat up, cradling it.
“What did you do that for?”
The brunette only gave his friend and annoyed look. “You got the hottest girl in school into a conversation…and you talked about Dickens?”
“She asked about it. Jeez Xand, what d’you think I am, retarded?”
His friend just gave him a sheepish look. “Well, it’s not as if you have practice in the department…I don’t mean it in a bad way, it’s just…”
As Xander trailed off apologetically, William nodded. “You’re right…I’m doomed.”
* * *
The bell rang to signify the end of lunch, and Buffy picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder, waving goodbye to her friends.
She was kind of hoping that the teacher would ask her to sit with William again, partly because he seemed alright, and partly because she wanted to get on well in her final year. Her Mom was always on her case about her bad grades, and before it had just seemed like her Mom liked to nag, but now she felt really serious about doing the right thing to secure herself a good life.
She couldn't be a cheerleader forever.
* * *
"Hey, Miss Baker."
Buffy shouted as she entered the classroom, letting the teacher know that she was there, ready to be told to sit by William.
However, Miss Baker just smiled and then carried on with her conversation. Buffy sighed. Looked like she was sitting with the populars.
"Hi guys." She let her eyes pass over them
Instead of sitting down she stood at the end of the table. She was contemplating something.
"You sitting, Buffy?" Kendra asked, pulling out a chair for the head-cheerleader and then looking back at her expectantly.
With a smile, Buffy shook her head. "Ugh, no. Miss Baker wants me to sit at the front from now on."
They all gave her sympathetic looks.
"Aww, too bad."
It wasn't bad at all. Buffy smiled. "Yeah. Too bad."
* * *
He wasn't exactly concentrating on his work. That was unusual for William, but he just couldn't keep what Xander had said out of his mind.
Xander was right. He was totally doomed when it came to women. Especially if he kept falling for girls like Buffy Summers.
He was the total opposite of popular. Why couldn’t he find a nice, normal girl who would at least notice him?
Just as he was thinking that, Buffy pulled the chair next to him out from under the table and dropped down onto it.
"Hi Will. I can call you Will, right? Unless you don't like it..."
Looking up, William's eyes fell upon the babbling cheerleader. Her head was tilted to the side and she was looking at him expectantly for an answer, but he hadn’t even heard the question.
"Sorry?"
She smiled, and sighed, shaking her head for a moment before looking back up at him and asking, "Can I call you Will?"
Nobody called him Will. Ever.
"Sure, of course you can."
She gave him a bright smile, before turning to the front and opening her bag. She was trying to find a pen when he asked.
"So, Baker is making you sit here again?"
Without even thinking about it, Buffy lied, "Ugh...yeah. She said I worked well here."
It was one thing to lie to her friends, but the lie to William had just slipped out. Something about him knowing that she wanted to sit there made her nervous, so she just palmed him off with the same lie as the others.
It was only a little white one.
William sighed inwardly, kind of disappointed –but not surprised- that Buffy was only sitting next to him on teacher’s orders.
Looking over at her again, he handed her his spare pen and then turned back to his work, trying his hardest not to watch her from the corner of his eye.
She was delicately humming to herself as the lesson settled down, tapping her pen against the table.
It was cute.
He could almost picture her dancing round her bedroom with pigtails and a hairbrush. Of course, in his imagination she was only wearing a tank-top and knickers, but still…
Looking over at William, Buffy noticed that his ears were pink. Intrigued, she leaned over his work to see what could possibly embarrass him on the page, but there was nothing out of the ordinary there.
“What are you blushing about?” she teased
With his gaze still remaining on his work, William whispered, “Umm….nothing?”
Giving him an ‘oh yeah’ look, Buffy turned back to her paper, trying to work up a smart-sounding sentence to write, when she noticed Mrs Baker walking towards her.
She looked up and smiled, hoping that the teacher would let it drop, but she didn’t.
She gave Buffy a delighted, though surprised, look and then walked away.
Buffy saw William watching the display, and sighed. He wouldn’t need to be a rocket scientist to analyse what had just happened. He was giving her a look.
A clearly amused look.
“Oh, shut up.” She whispered, putting her head down again to continue her work.
* * *
“So, she’s sitting with you totally and completely out of her own free will?”
William nodded. The fact had come as quite a shock to him, but the look of surprise on Mrs Bakers face had given Buffy away totally, and he’d actually felt his heart swell.
He’d been buzzing from it all day. Beyond ecstatic. Since he’d found out in class that she was there because she wanted to be, she’d been leaning over to read his work and whispering questions in his ear. The first thing he did when he found Xander, was tell him everything.
“And she’s calling you Will?”
Again, William nodded, smiling as he pushed his food around on his plate.
“We had a joke about it, because she’d tried to pretend that she was being forced to sit there.”
Xander waggled his eyebrows. “Maybe she likes you.”
William sighed and nodded. “Or maybe, she just wants to buckle down and get her work done while she still has the chance to make something of her life.”
That theory did make more sense, but Xander didn’t let things lie so easily.
William was going to be mocked.
* * *
A few days later, Buffy was wandering aimlessly around school during her free period. Angel, Cordy and the others had left the school-grounds, but she didn’t want to, and she suddenly found herself very alone.
Sometimes a little alone time was alright, but right now she felt like sitting and talking with someone.
It must have been ten minutes of bored wondering later when Buffy found herself in front of the teacher’s pictures which were hung up by the faculty lounge. She studied them, giggling at the funny looking ones, and skimming over the boring ones. That’s when she came across Rupert Giles’s picture. He was the librarian. William’s uncle.
A smile spread across her features as she turned in the direction of the library. She’d bet that’s where William was.
* * *
The library was quiet. He liked it there for that reason. Ok, it was filled with books, but that really was just a bonus. He liked to be on his own, and as his Uncle was the librarian, this was the one place in the school where he felt really welcome. Where he belonged.
It was rarely visited by other students, so he could sit and do as he pleased. Right now, he was trying to concentrate on his English work. He enjoyed literature, so he often found himself doing extra work for Miss Baker- just because.
The whole place was quiet right now, even Rupert was across the school, no doubt flirting with the new computers teacher Miss Calendar, so William jumped when he heard the door creak slightly.
“Wow…this place is huge!”
Turning quickly to the voice, William’s eyes widened.
“B…Buffy? What are you doing here?”
She continued to look around for a moment, before finally turning to him and answering: “I came to see you actually.”
He frowned. “You did?”
Walking further into the library, Buffy let her hand brush along the wall as she approached him. “Yeah. I was thinking about you…about how fun it’d be to come and study with you in the book-palace.”
Up until the last part, William had believed her. “Fun? To study?”
She rolled her eyes, letting her bag slip from her shoulder as she sat down opposite him.
“Well yeah. I mean, we don’t HAVE to study…we could just talk.”
Closing his book, William pulled his glasses off and began to clean them. Buffy remembered his Uncle doing exactly the same…and so she smiled slightly.
“Something on your mind?” William asked, as he placed the glasses back on the bridge of his nose.
Buffy remained silent for a second, analysing her brief time with William, and wondering if he was someone she could really talk to. He seemed quiet enough, and nice enough to keep her secrets…but her mother had always said, it was the quiet ones you need to watch out for.
She mulled this over for a second, but finally she slumped in frustration.
“Angel’s getting on my nerves. I wish he’d leave me alone.”
Their conversation in class, aside, this was one of the last things William expected her to say, and he raised his eyebrows above the frame of his glasses. “Really?”
Buffy nodded, but when her eyes met his, they gave away a lot. Through the frustration, William could see that Buffy held memories of Angel dear to her, and that drifting away from him was hurting her.
He wanted to say something to comfort her, but instead he stayed silent and let her continue.
“Yeah.” She nodded, her expression determined. “He’s a big, dumb jerk and I wish he’d just jump off the planet.”
William smiled, tilting his head. Her expression had become rather sour and it made him want to laugh. Unconsciously, a smirk settled on his face.
Looking up, Buffy saw his expression and pouted. With a giggle, she leaned over the table and pushed his shoulder.
“What are you smirking at? I was expecting sympathy!”
She giggled as she sat back down, placing her hands on the table and looking around, her eyes gradually falling back on him.
“I like this.”
Her statement was rather vague. She could have meant she liked the library, or she liked their talking, or just being able to talk to someone about her problems.
“You like what?” he ventured, hoping that he was at least an element in what she enjoyed enough to blurt it out like that.
She smiled, her eyes dancing delicately as she leaned forwards towards him
“This. You and me. Just us, being ourselves without everybody else. Talking together like friends.”
Like friends. That part of her sentence stood out, causing William to wince and almost feel angry for his hopeful thoughts. Raising an eyebrow, he whispered, “Aren’t we?”
Her nose scrunched up in a cute bunny-like way and she frowned. “Aren’t we what?”
Simply, he said, “Friends.” And waited to see what she answered.
However, she didn’t straight away. Instead she sat and looked at him for a moment, as if trying to decide upon a sufficient answer.
“I’d like to be.” She sighed, still trying to bring her thoughts to words. “I’d like to say, that I know the ins and outs of William Giles – but I don’t. Although you’re shy, you pretend to be all ‘come as you are’ and obvious…but you’re not. You’re over-flowing with secret and mystery.”
This answer surprised William. He expected either a ‘no’ or a simple ‘yes’ that was either truth or bullshit, but instead he got a psychological examination.
He smiled. “Something tells me that you’ve given this a lot of thought…but another part of me tells me that I’m not important enough for that.”
“…you’re also over-flowing with self-doubt and the inability to be yourself in a social environment.”
His smile widened, and he nodded. “So…psychology will be your major in college then?”
Buffy giggled, shaking her head. “I don’t know. I never even considered college until recently…I was cheering, jumping around with my pom-poms in front of the crowd, and I suddenly realised that my life consisted of trying to figure out what rhymed with Sunnydale, and cheering Angel to score.”
“Yeah. I like the outfit though.”
Seeing a glint in William’s eye, Buffy sat up in false-shock.
“William Giles! I knew you had a saucy side.”
A blush covered his cheeks, making his ears pink, and Buffy smiled, resting her chin in her hand.
Reaching over the table, she picked up William’s book.
He watched her closely as she ran her fingers over the old leather, a small smile coming to her lips even as she tried to read the faded title.
“What book is this?”
Shrugging, William explained that it was just an old book he’d found on one of the shelves that was out of sight, and that although he couldn’t read the title or author, the poems and drabbles he’d found in it had inspired him.
Hearing this, Buffy stroked the book a little more, seemingly growing more attached to it as he spoke.
“Do you mind if I borrow it?” she whispered, either unsure of his answer, or unsure of her own want to read it.
Almost blushing a little, William nodded. “If you want to…but some of the drabbles and are somewhat…rude.”
This made Buffy wonder what exactly William had been inspired to do after finding the book, and a sudden rush of images entered her brain.
Shaking them off, she smiled at him from under her lashes and sighed.
“I’ve never understood poetry. I mean, beyond cheering I’ve never had a need to make words rhyme…” she shook her head and smiled at herself. “…but I’d like to say that I can appreciate it. Maybe even one day, something -or someone- will inspire me to write my own.”
William couldn’t ignore the way his heart raced as she said someone, and he couldn’t ignore the wistful look on her face.
In that moment, he really wanted to be that man…
…he wanted to inspire her to write poetry.
To be continued...
[Reviews - 74]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 2757 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +