“Really?”

“Of course. Why would I tease you about something like this?”

“Let’s see… Maybe because you hate me?”

Cordelia sighed. “Buffy, he’s gonna ask you out. He even told me. Now go talk to him!”

Buffy walked down the hall towards the boy. “Hey, Angel.”

“Buffy,” he replied, grinning. “I was just about to look for you. I have a question.”

She smiled sweetly. “Yes?”

“Well, I was wondering if you’d like to, ah, you know the dance on Saturday?”

“Yeah, I helped organize it,” Buffy said slowly, liking where this conversation was going.

“So, I wondered if maybe you’d like to WAKE UP!!”

“What?”

~~~~~*~~~~~

“WAKE UP!”

Buffy sat up in bed. “Dawn?”

“Yeah, duh. It’s time to get up. You’re gonna be late if you don’t.”

“Oh my god! First day of school, how could I forget?” Buffy cried, jumping out of bed and running to her closet.

Dawn rolled her eyes and went downstairs, following the scent of pancakes.

~~~~~*~~~~~

“So, Buffy Summers, how does it feel to be a high school sophomore?”

“Well, I’d say it feels pretty darn good. I know the campus, I know the teachers, I know the students, and I’m not among the youngest anymore.” Buffy replied, laughing.

“And Miss Willow Rosenburg. What do you have to say about our current topic of conversation?”

“I say that Xander Harris is being weird and needs to cut the announcer voice,” Willow said.

Everyone laughed. Willow and Xander had been Buffy’s best friends since preschool. They went to Sunnydale High, just like all the other kids in the small town.

The trio walked up the steps into the school. On their way to the lockers, they passed Cordelia, the biggest, most popular “bitca” in the school, and her Cordettes, as her friends were so politely called.

“Oh, look. It’s the loser patrol,” Cordelia said, stopping her progress down the hall. “Willow, honey, where did you get that dress? I have to know, so I can remember NEVER to shop there.” The Cordettes giggled. “And Xander, what is your fashion malfunction? Did you like, dive headfirst into a pile of—“ she stopped, looking past Buffy and her friends at something down the hall.

“Oh. My. God. I really have to get me one of those.” The Cordettes all looked were she was looking and gasped. Cordelia looked back at her minions and said, “Since I’m the president of the Welcoming Committee, you guys stay back and I’ll talk to him.”

They turned around to watch Cordy marching boldly in the direction of some new boy. The all made gagging faces and walked down the hall.

“Hey guys!” Willow cried as they reached the lockers. “I almost forgot. I have presents.”

“Oooh, presents,” Buffy said.

Willow handed her and Xander little boxes. Inside each was a little letter-beads bracelet that said “Official Scooby” in multi-coloured letters.

“I made those ‘cause we’re the Scoobies, and we should have, like, special badges or something that tell everyone that.”

“Aw, Wills, how sweet,” Buffy cooed.

“There nice, Willow, but how am I gonna keep my rep as man of the campus wearing beads?” Xander stated.

“Hey. Don’t be a spoilsport. Put on the bracelet,” said Buffy, hitting him in the arm.

At that moment, the bell rang. The Scoobies broke up and said their goodbyes, heading off to their respective classes.

As Buffy walked into her first classroom, English, the first thing she saw was a really hot bleach-blond guy, all dressed in black. She took in deep breath and then let it out when she realized that Cordy had probably already called dibs on the guy and would get really mad if Buffy interfered.

So she walked to the back of the classroom and took a seat in the far corner. The boy, Buffy noticed decided to sit in the front row. Very uncommon for a new kid.

Buffy was relieved when the bell rang to get out of class. She’d had a hard time focusing on anything because of the new kid. She rushed out of class and ran headlong into Riley Finn.

“Hey, Buffy. In a hurry?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I was just trying to, you know, go meet the guys before the next class. So much to tell them,” she babbled nervously.

“After the first class?” Riley asked doubtfully. “Anyway, Buffy, I was wondering if you’d come to Homecoming with me.”

“Yeah, that would be great!” she said happily.

He smiled. “I won’t keep you from your friends any longer.” He walked off down the hall.

Buffy walked over to her locker with a silly grin plastered on her face. “Hey guys, guess what?” she said as she reached her buddies.

“We’ll never guess, so why don’t you just tell us?” Xander said.

“Ok, I will. Hot new boy in my English class, and riley asked me to Homecoming!” she said excitedly.

“Oh, wow, Buffy! That’s awesome!” Willow cried.

“Riley? You’re going to Homecoming with Riley?!” Xander said incredulously. “Excuse me while I go puke.”

“Xander!”

“What? He’s the biggest, stupidest, most annoying—“ Xander gulped. “ingenious, brilliant player on the school football team. Hey-a Finn, how’s it going?”

Riley had walked past the group during Xander’s rant and had stopped to listen. He glared and walked away.

“See what I mean?” Xander whispered. “Lame-o. Lamer than me, even.”

“Wow. I didn’t think that was possible. Did you, Willow?”

“Nope.” The girls walked away.

“Hey! Come on!” Xander called after them, racing to catch up.

The group split up again further down the hall, Willow and Xander to English and Buffy to Math.

Buffy freaked when the bell rang, not wanting to be late on her first day. She started running, unfortunately not seeing who was coming in the opposite direction and crashing headlong into him.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I seem to be doing that a lot today,” she said, bending forward to pick up her books.

“Right. Well, watch where you’re going next time and you won’t make that mistake,” came a British voice from beside her.

She looked up to see intense blue eyes looking down at her from, oh no, the new kid.

“I really am sorry,” she said.

“Whatever, luv.”

The bell rang above their heads. The new boy sighed and looked at her angrily. “Now look what you’ve done. I’m going to be late now.”

“Hey. It was an accident. You’re not the only one who’s gonna be late now, so don’t you get snippy with me, buster.” Buffy stood up and glared for a moment before stomping off toward her next class.

stupid, mean, rude, annoying, evil, cranky, yummy, hot, sexy, NO! her brain screamed at her. he is not hot or sexy or yummy, he is really really rude and we shouldn’t ever talk to him again. hope he fails all his classes and never ever gets a date to any of the dances ever and gets rejected by every girl ever and a thousand million people are rude to him and—

Her mind carried on like this throughout her entire math class.

Buffy didn’t see her friends again until lunch. By that time she was feeling better and not so upset about that new kid. She walked into the cafeteria with a smile on her face and got her lunch. She was the first one of her friends to get to the table, due to the fact that her last class was pretty close to the lunchroom. After a minute, she saw Willow and Xander coming. She waved as they neared.

“I think this stuff is toxic. I mean, look at it. It’s all gray and-“ she stopped when she saw who they had with them.

“Hey, Buff. Let me introduce you two. Buffy, This is Spike. Spike, Buffy,” Willow announced. “Spike’s new, he’s gonna eat with us today.”

“I’ve already met him.”

“You have? That’s great!” Willow smiled happily. “He must be that new guy in your English class that you were talking about.”

“Yeah.”

Spike smirked at her. “At least you seem to have slowed down a bit.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. You’re such a comedian.”

Xander looked up from stuffing his face. “Oooh, I sense some tension.”

“Ya think?” Buffy snapped. She got up from the table and stormed off.

‘Jeez, what’s eating her?” Spike said, turning to his lunch.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Buffy stomped down the hall, mind reeling. She was so caught up in her thoughts, in fact, that she didn’t notice anything around her until she stomped right into someone.

“Ow!”

“Oh, sorry!”

Angel smiled. “Where were going in such a hurry that you couldn’t see someone right in front of you?”

“I’ve been doing that a lot today. I was preoccupied. Sorry,” she said, wishing she could melt. This was Angel, dream guy, popular hottie that every girl in the school was after. She was so embarrassed.

“No problem. You wanna say what’s on your mind?”

They walked outside and sat down on a bench.

“Well,” Buffy started nervously, “there’s this new guy. He’s really annoying, and rude, and he’s in there eating lunch with my friends.”

“Let me guess, bleach-blonde British boy? Ah, there’s an alliteration. Sorry,” Angel said, smiling.

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

He sighed. “Spike’s my cousin. His mom died, so he came to stay with us, see how he liked America.”

“Oh. Now I feel kinda sorry for him.” Buffy looked at the floor. “I can’t imagine how he must feel.”

“If you’re thinking that’s the reason he’s so obnoxious, you’re wrong. He’s always been like that. Now he just uses his whole ‘orphan’ status as an excuse.”

Buffy sighed. Then she sat straight and looked at him. “Orphan?”

“Yeah, his dad died when he was a kid. He’s had some pretty hard luck, family gone, getting dumped, having to move some place where the prettiest girl in the school thinks he’s annoying…” Angel trailed off, remaining stoic towards the off-hand compliment he gave her.

Buffy blushed and looked down again. poor guy. maybe I should be nicer to him. I mean, if my mom died, no matter what I acted like on the outside, I’d still be really sad on the inside. and, he doesn’t have any friends here, I don’t really think Angel’s the sort to show him around campus and help him make friends… but then, I don’t think he really needs the help. he made my friends easily enough. who does he think he is, anyway? just ‘cause he’s hot, wait, no, just ‘cause he thinks he hot, which he most definitely isn’t, wait, what was I thinking again? something about that ass of his? wait! ew! no! he doesn’t have a hot ass! who said anything about a hot ass? not me! By this time, Buffy was thoroughly confused. All she knew was that she definitely didn’t like the new guy who wasn’t hot and didn’t have a sexy accent and a nice ass and cool hair. ‘cause he wasn’t any of that. And she knew that she had never been so happy to have the bell ring to go to class.

~~~~~*~~~~~

“Hey!” Willow shouted over the loud music. Buffy looked where her friend was waving. oh no…

Xander smiled. “How’d you find the place?”

Spike smirked. “The Bronze is pretty much the only place in town, you know. Not that hard to find.”

Willow laughed.

“Aren’t you going to say hi, Buffy?” Spike said, leaning down over her and smirking.

“Hi, Buffy.”

“Ooh, smart aleck.” He grinned and sat down by her.

“Go away.”

“What ever for? Me and you, we both know what you really feel for me.”

“Contempt?”

Spike put his hand over his heart with a mock-hurt face. “Oh, that was below the belt, luv.”

Buffy rolled her eyes.

Xander was watching a blonde girl who was sitting over by Cordy. “That’s the new girl, Anya Jenkins.”

Willow made a gagging face. “He’s been talking about her all day. Driving me insane.”

Buffy giggled.

Spike eyed the girl with a raised brow. “She’s alright. Nothing particularly good about her, she’s alright.”

The girls looked at Spike. “What? I’m just saying that there are better-lookin’ girls around here.”

“Right. Then name one,” Buffy said.

“You.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not asking to bed you, I’m just sayin’ you look better than her. Example. There’re quite a few girls better lookin’ than her, you only asked me to name one.” Spike backpedaled frantically, while trying to seem like he had planned the whole conversation.

“Whatever.”

Angel came up to them. “Hey Buffy, you wanna dance?”

“Poofter, what’re you doin’ here?” Spike asked.

“Piss off, Spike.”

Buffy glared at Spike a moment. “I’d love to dance, Angel.”

They walked over to the dance floor together.

“I’d love to dance, Angel,” Spike mocked in a high-pitched voice. “Huh. If she knew...”

“Knew what?”

“I’m gonna ask her to dance,” Xander announced, walking over to Anya. The pair seated at the table watched in interest as the boy walked up to Anya and asked her something. They were both amazed when she smiled and stood up. And apparently, Xander was, too.

“Who’d’ve thought the Whelp had it in him?” Spike remarked softly, watching them walk to the dance floor. He turned to Willow. “Dance with me. We’re the only ones left, might as well join the fun.”

She smiled shyly. “Ok.”

They stood up and joined the gyrating throng on the dance floor.

Buffy and Dawn sat at the kitchen counter eating breakfast on Saturday morning. Joyce had made her famous pancakes, saying that every mall-shopping girl needs a filling first meal to keep her on her feet during the long hours.

“So, girls, how was the first week of school?” she asked expectantly. Both sisters answered in unison with a passive shrug. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me that nothing note-worthy happened?”

“Oh, well, Morgan said her sister’s pregnant, Sara broke her leg yesterday in the hall, and there’s this new boy in my science class that is sooo totally hot, AND he’s my lab partner,” Dawn said, emphasizing the bit about the hot guy.

“And what about you, Buffy? Anything exiting happen to you?” Joyce pressed, ignoring the comment about the irresponsible Clement girls.

“Not really. There’s this new guy who moved in from England, cousin of the delicious Liam Angel. But he’s way annoying. I hate him. He has some weird punk name, like, Spike or something,” Buffy replied rolling her eyes. “But he seems to be getting along fine with Xander and Willow. I am sooo glad that it’s Saturday and I don’t have to see him again ‘till Monday.”

“Well, maybe there’s something going on in his life that makes him seem annoying.”

“His mom died, but Angel says he was always obnoxious to begin with.”

Joyce gasped. “Oh, the poor boy!”

“Yeah, Buffy, how can you be so mean to someone whose mom died?” Dawn asked, stabbing her pancake with her fork.

“He’s been totally rude to me all the time since we met. Anyway, I’m just happy he’s not going to be at the mall today,” she replied, finishing her milk.

“Oh, speaking of the mall, we should really get going so you’re not late.”

“Sounds awesome,” Buffy said, dumping her plate in the sink and walking out to the car.

~~~~~*~~~~~

“Hey guys!” Buffy said, seeing her friends walking over to the pizza place. She smiled brightly and hurried toward them, stopping when she saw who accompanied them.

“Hey Buffy!” Willow said happily.

“Hey, Buff, hope you don’t mind that we brought the Bleached Wonder along. We just thought we’d show him the sites,” came Xander’s welcome as he noticed the frown on her face when she saw their bleached companion.

Spike punched Xander in the arm. “Shut up, Whelp,” he said good-naturedly. “Hello, pet. Up for some girly shopping fun?” And cue smirk.

“Shut up, Spike.”

They walked into the pizza place and sat down at the gang’s favourite booth. “So, what does everyone want? Pepperoni? I assume Spike’s buying,” Xander quipped.

“Not on your life, Harris. I’m too cheap to pay for you lot to eat,” he drawled back, getting up to order anyway.

When he was safely out of hearing distance, Buffy glared at the two accusingly and whispered, “Why the hell did you have to bring him?”

“Well, Buff, you might hate him for some twisted reason, but Willow and I happen to like the guy,” defended the brunette.

“He’s not that bad, Buffy. I mean, just get to know him. I know you’ll like him,” Willow calmly remarked.

“Talking about me?” Spike said waving a steaming pizza above their heads.

“You wish.”

“That’s too bad, luv, ‘cause I’m the one who’s paying for your lunch.”

“Who said I was eating any?”

“You did just as we were coming in.”

“Well, maybe I lied.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Jerk.”

“Bint.”

“Moron.”

“Cheerleader.”

“Ass.”

“Loser.”

Willow and Xander watched the exchange between the two blondes like a very fascinating tennis match. It was only when things were looking to get ugly when they finally stepped in.

“Jerk-off.”

“Bi-“

“OK, I think that’s enough, you two,” Willow cut Spike off.

“Yeah, as entertaining as this is, I don’t think the guy who owns this place is gonna be happy if the two potty-mouth bottle-blondes scare away all his customers,” Xander said.

“-tch,” Spike finished defiantly. He sat down and smirked, passing out pizza to everyone. His smirk turned to an annoyed frown when Buffy didn’t touch the food on her plate. “What? I paid for that, you know. Least you could do would be to take one bite.”

“I said I wasn’t eating any,” Buffy replied, turning her head to the side.

He ran his fingers through his hair frustratedly; biting his tongue to prevent asking her rudely what bug had crawled up her ass and died. “What part of me is it that gives you a problem, luv?”

“All of you,” she said, not looking at him.

ouch, Spike thought. never thought I’d ever let a girl like that’s opinion get to me. He sat quietly and finished his pizza, while Willow and Xander shot concerned looks across the table.

~~~~~*~~~~~

After lunch, the guys headed over to the arcade, and the girls went on over to the stores to look at Homecoming dresses.

“They’re having Homecoming a little early this year,” Willow commented, holding up a light pink dress.

Buffy winced and shook her head. She looked through a rack of blood red dresses. “Yeah, but it’s alright. anyway, I already got a date.” She held up a dress.

Willow put the pink one back on the rack and pulled out a different dress and handed it to Buffy. “I still don't get why you're going with Riley."

“What's wrong with it?” she asked, tossing the dress to the side and looking at a pale yellow one.

“I thought you guys broke up, though.” Willow stated, taking the yellow dress from Buffy and throwing it onto a stool. “It makes your hair look green.”

“We did, it’s just a harmless dance. And it's not like I'm planning on getting back togehter with him.” She looked at the red “dress” Willow was holding up. “How much to get to know you?”

The redhead rolled her eyes at Buffy’s not-so-veiled disgust. She picked up a bottle-green dress and a sky-blue one and walked over to the dressing room. “You really should think about it, Buffy. I mean, what does that imply to Riley? That you want him back. What does that imply to everyone else? That you’re back together. It’s not too late to cancel on him.”

“I know, but I want us to be friends. And anyway, I was a little flustered when he asked me, so I couldn’t help saying yes.”

“You shouldn't be going with him, anyway. Sorry to sound broken record, but it's just a bad idea. Things can be misinterpreted."

“Hey, who was the one who was saying it was so great I was gong with him?”

Willow paused. ”Because I knew it would gross Xander out if I acted like it was awesome. I was gonna tell you off later, but I got distracted."

“Lame excuse.”

Buffy picked up a pink dress and eyed it carefully, holding it up to her body before deciding that it made her skin look too red and putting it back on the hanger.

“You should go with Spike.”

“What?!” Buffy dropped the dress she was holding. “Where have you been all week?”

“Hey. Best friend here,” Willow said, coming out of the dressing room. She wore a gorgeous green dress that really brought out her eyes, which were currently twinkling with mischief. The dress had a tiny lace trim on the sleeves, skirt and neckline, and tied in the back with a chiffon sash. “I know it’s just a bad case of UST that keeps you two fighting.”

“Ewww.” Buffy wrinkled her nose in revulsion. “That’s gross. And that dress looks awesome on you, by the way.”

“You think so?” Willow went over to the mirror. She smiled at her reflection. “Anyway, I don’t think Spike has a date to the dance. It would be nice to go with him.”

“I don’t see that happening, Wills.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

Xander and Spike were playing Attack of the Zombies in the arcade when Spike brought up the subject of Buffy.

“Why do you think she hates me so much?” he asked, throwing a right hook at Xander’s zombie.

“I dunno. I mean, she’s never been so uptight about a guy before.” Xander countered his attack and did a spinning kick to Spike’s zombie’s head. “You ever wondered why they make the zombies on this game so athletic?”

“I was kinda thinking about the reason why they have two zombies fighting each other. If I was a zombie, I’d be out looking for brains rather than beating on my fellow dead man.”

“Good point. You know, you should probably go out and look for a brain anyway.”

“Ha ha.” Spike punched Xander’s zombie’s head right off. Blood spurted everywhere and Spike was declared the winner.

“This is a violent game. Maybe we should stop playing,” Xander commented, slipping another quarter into the slot.

“I mean, it’s not like I ever did anything to her to make her hate me so much,” Spike said, doing a backflip to avoid the other zombie barreling into him. “You’re right. These are athletic zombies.”

“Yeah, but if you do too many fancy tricks, your parts fall off.” Xander improvised by tearing a streetlamp up and throwing it at Spike, successfully knocking his zombie’s head off. Unfortunately, the head flew backwards and bounced off the wall into Xander, knocking his off. The screen was covered in blood as the words “Game Over” flashed on the screen.

Spike fed the machine a quarter, laughing at the other boy’s dumbstruck look.

“That wasn’t fair!”

They started up the game again. “You should stop trying to analyze girls, man. It only leads to headaches and angry females screaming at you for talking about them behind their backs.” He ran Spike’s zombie through with a pole.

Spike tore out the pole and threw it spinning straight through Xander’s head. he laughed as Xander pounded the machine, crying “Cheap shot! Cheap shot!”

“Have anymore quarters, Harris?”

“No, I think you beating me at a game you’ve never played twelve times used up all my change.”

“I think you’re right about the girls thing, Whelp.”

“Of course I’m right. I grew up with those two. Still don’t understand ‘em.”

“Let’s go fetch our women and go home. All this ass-kicking has tired me out,” Spike smirked.

The phone rang and Buffy jumped up to grab it. She’d just spent the day hanging out at the mall and watching movies with Willow. She couldn't imagine who'd be calling her right now. If Willow'd had anything to say, she would have done so earlier.

“Hello?"

“Hey, Buffy.”

“Riley?”

“Yeah. Listen, I called because I really have to cancel on you. I don’t want to, but-“

“Hang on, huh? You what?”

“I got suspended yesterday, and my parents won’t let me go to Homecoming now. I’m sorry, I really wanted to go with you.”

Buffy sat there for a moment. What now? Willow was surely going to start pestering her about Spike now. “Yeah, um, that’s ok Riley.”

“No, it’s not. Let me make it up to you sometime. We could go see a movie or something.”

“No, Riley, it’s fine. Listen, I gotta go now. I’ll see you later.”

“Alright. Love you, Buffy.”

“Bye.”

She hung up. “That’s not good.”

She changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed. Monday was going to be a bad day. Nagging Willow, lunch with Spike, quiz in English, homework, homework, homework. Hopefully, Spike didn’t come to movie night as well. She sighed. Maybe it wasn’t too late to ask Angel to Homecoming…

She fell asleep with these more pleasant thoughts in her mind.

~~~~~*~~~~~
Spike dropped his tray on the table and sat down. “Hello, ladies. Have a nice Sunday?”

“Hey! I represent that statement!” Xander cried.

Smirk. “Sorry. Ladies and Whelp. How’s that?"

“Much better.”

“So, what fascinating conversation did I just interrupt?” Spike asked, glancing at the two chattering girls. “I don’t suppose a bloke gets a greeting from the girls around here.”

“Hey, Spike,” Willow said.

Buffy just made a face at him and went back to her lunch.

“Don’t stop talking on my account,” Spike said. “I wanna hear what you were saying.”

“Riley canceled on Buffy. Now she doesn’t have a date to Homecoming,” Xander supplied.

“Xander!”

“What? You tell me, you tell Willow, why not tell Spike? He’s our friend, too.”

“Way to stick your foot in your mouth, Whelp. Apparently, our fair Buffy didn’t want yours truly to know. Probably thought I’d make fun of her.” He shook off his momentary hurt. “So, White Bread canceled on you? Always knew he wasn’t as reliable as he seems.”

“Shut up, Spike. You don’t even know him.”

“Sure I do. Lab partner. He’s one annoying guy. So plain, he puts vanilla to shame.”

Willow and Xander laughed. “That’s our Riley,” Willow joked.

Buffy scowled. “If you’re here to make fun of me and my judgment…”

“I’m not! Just havin’ a little fun! And honestly, you must know how boring he is, you dated him.”

“I didn’t break up with him because he’s boring, for your information.” Buffy glared at him and stood up. “I didn’t come here to be insulted.” She walked off.

“Jesus. What is wrong with that girl? It’s like she finds my very existence offensive.”

Buffy was walking down the hall, trying to cool off. She shouldn’t be so angry. Why should she care what that British moron thinks of her? She relaxed a little. Everything was going to be ok.

“Buffy!” Or not. She turned around to meet the guy who was running down the hall after her.

“What do you want?”

“Buffy, I didn’t mean to make you angry back there,” Spike said, catching up. “Listen, since you don’t have a date to the dance, and I don’t, would you go with me? Just as friends, I mean.”

Buffy waited until he was done before answering. “Spike, I wouldn’t go to the dance with you if you were the last boy on earth.” And with that, she turned and continued down the hall.

~~~~~*~~~~~
“So, got a date for the dance tonight, William?”

“Piss off, Liam.”

“Oh, come on! You’re not upset because I’m going and you’re not?” Angel teased his cousin.

“I said piss off!”

He looked at the angry boy and shrugged. “Fine. I’ve gotta go pick up one Buffy Summers now anyways.”

Spike was shocked. “You’re going with Buffy?”

“Yeah. Her date backed out so she asked me to go.” He smirked. “Not that I blame the guy.”

Spike glared. “She’s not going to be one of your little play-toys, Liam.”

“Why not? Don’t I get to have some fun once in a while?” he pouted. “Well, I’ll leave you to yourself. I have more important things to be doing today.”

Angel put on his jacket and opened the door. Just as he was about to walk out, he turned back and said, “Oh, and Willy? Don’t even try to take this one from me.”

~~~~~*~~~~~
When Buffy heard the doorbell ring, she dropped her hairpin, grabbed her lipstick, and checked her image in the mirror. She flew down the stairs and stopped at the bottom to compose herself before answering the door.

“Hey, Angel!” she said happily.

“Hey! Wow, you look really great!”

“Thanks, you too.”

“So, you ready to go?” Angel asked, looking over her shoulder briefly.

“Yeah, sounds good.”

When the pair walked into the gym, Buffy looked around and quickly spotted her friends. But Angel had other plans. When she tried to move over in Willow’s direction, Angel instead pulled her over to where his friends were standing.

“Hey, guys. This is Buffy. Buffy, this is Lindsey, Darla, Parker, Lilah, and Mr. Trick.”

“Mr. Trick?”

“James Trick, at your service,” the tall black guy said, taking her hand and giving her a malicious grin.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Buffy said shyly.

“Yes, the pleasure is equally ours,” the girl called Lilah said. She turned and whispered something in Darla’s ear. The girls both laughed.

Parker looked over her body, his eyes lingering just a little longer than one would call respectful.

“Hey, Buffy. Pleased to meet you,” Lindsey said with a soft smile.

“Hello, everyone. This is my date, Chanterelle,” said a voice from behind them.

Angel turned around and grinned. “Gavin! So nice of you to come. This is Buffy.”

“Hi.”

“Hello, Buffy. I must say, I’m very pleased to meet you.”

Buffy looked around at the people who were now chatting comfortably, she standing at the edge of the group. She noticed Chanterelle looking a little uncomfortable with the situation, but Gavin’s arm around her waist prevented her from moving.

Angel turned and noticed Buffy’s nervous reaction to his friends. “Hey, babe, why don’t we go dance?” he asked, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the dance floor.

“Your friends are kinda odd,” she said, once they were out of earshot.

“Yeah, they can be like that, but I can tell they like you.”

“Really?” They settled on the dance floor in time for a slow song. “Lindsey’s alright, but I’m not sure about the others…”

“Ah, they don’t mean anything,” Angel said with a shrug.

Buffy looked away for a moment, watching the other couples dancing around them. Something about Angel’s friends seemed off. How could he not notice?

They danced a few more dances before Buffy finally pulled away. “I’m gonna go over by my friends now.”

“Nah, why don’t you come over with us?” Angel said, gesturing towards the group at the edge of the floor.

“No, I think I really want to go sit with Willow and Xander now.” She left him on the floor, staring after her.

Rather than being upset and hurt, this made Angel all the more pleased with his new discovery. He grinned and walked back over to his friends, happy with the challenge laid before him.

Spike didn’t show up for the Homecoming dance that night, or Willow’s Homecoming party afterward. He didn’t go to the Bronze Saturday night, in fact, nobody heard from him all weekend. Which is why Buffy was surprised to see him in class on Monday morning.

“Mr. Connors, so glad you could join us. Why don’t you take a seat?” Mr. Wyndam-Pryce said to the late arrival.

The only available seat, unfortunately, was in the third row, right next to Buffy.

Spike trudged over and flopped down into the seat, dropping his bag on the floor. He pulled out a pen and a battered notebook and started writing. He looked up again, annoyed, when the teacher spoke to him.

“Would you mind telling us why you were so late this morning?”

“Overslept,” he grunted, looking back down to his paper.

Mr. Wyndam-Pryce turned back to the rest of the class. “So, I trust you all did the project I assigned you last week?”

Buffy sat and doodled on her paper, trying to ignore the tense atmosphere between her and Spike. She glanced over, and he was still writing away like there was no tomorrow. She went back to her doodles. Palm tree. Sandy beach. She glanced over again. Still focused on whatever it was he was writing. She sighed. Two more palm trees. A mountain. Big yellow sun. Ok, so not really yellow, kinda gray. She looked out the corner of her eye. Spike was still writing. He turned a page and returned to scribbling furiously. Buffy gave a frustrated sigh. The teacher was still droning on, and she was horribly bored. She scribbled out the doodles on her paper and pulled out a clean one. She started again. Island. Ocean. Palm tree. Little pile of coconuts.

“Spike?” she whispered. No response. “Spike?” She poked him with her pencil.

“Piss off. I’m working.”

“Ok.” Pause. “I’m bored.”

Spike let out a low growl. “And how exactly is that my problem?”

“Because.”

“I do hope my lesson isn’t interrupting and important conversation of yours?” Mr. Wyndam-Pryce said, glaring at the pair.

“No, sir. I was just telling Miss Summers that she should pay more attention,” Spike replied dryly. He turned back to his notebook.

Buffy blushed brightly and turned back to her paper with a muttered apology. She grabbed a fresh paper. She started writing a list of everything wrong with Spike.

Annoying
Bizarre
Crazy
Dumb
Extremely Bleached

and on the list went. Finally the bell rang and Buffy practically ran from the room.

“Miss Summers!” she heard a voice call from the room.

She reluctantly walked back in. “Yes, Mr. Wyndam-Pryce?”

Spike smirked as he headed towards the door. “And you, Mr. Connors.”

He froze, and then slowly turned around and walked back.

The professor sighed. “You two are very bright, I know this, but you won’t show it. Your grades will not be very good if you don’t do your assignments. I know it’s only the second week, but you two need to get in the game or I’ll have to take certain measures that nobody will enjoy. My policy is, no student of mine fails at being the best they can be. I trust you understand this?”

“Yes, sir,” the pair responded in unison.

“Good, good. Now, get to your next class.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

When lunch came, Buffy noticed Spike sitting at the table with her friends. She had half-hoped he wouldn’t sit there today, mostly because of the tension that she felt was better left alone. But, she needed to be strong, so she strode over to the table and sat down.

“Hey guys.”

“Hey Buffy.” “Hey there, Buffster.”

Spike looked up and acknowledged her with a gruff “Summers” and a nod. He opened a can of Coke and leaned back in his seat surveying the group from across the table.

“So, Buff, Spike tells us you got in trouble,” Xander said tactfully.

“I’m not the only one who got held after,” she shot back, giving Spike a distasteful look. “Not even the only one who got yelled at for talking.”

Xander let out an exaggeratedly shocked gasp. “Cordelia?! No way!”

Willow laughed and Buffy glared. Xander held up his hands in surrender. “So, what did my favourite bottle-blonde couple do to get in trouble?”

“We’re not a couple!”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Bad grades, apparently. It’s only the second week! And Miss Buffy was talking to me in class.” He smirked.

“That was rude of you, embarrassing me in the middle of class like that.”

“Serves you right,” he said defiantly. “I told you to bugger off, but you wouldn’t listen.”

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“Ooh!” Willow gasped. “Here comes Angel!” And he was coming, all right. Walked right up to their table.

“Buffy. What a surprise to see you here,” he said, leaning on the table. “William.”

“Poof.”

Buffy watched the cousins exchange pleasantries. She looked back up at the darker boy and gave him her best California-girl smile. “Hey Angel. And, how exactly is it a surprise? I go to school here, too.”

Angel chuckled. “Let me cut straight to the chase. I had a lot of fun with you Friday night. I wondered if you’d like to go do something this weekend.”

Buffy was caught momentarily speechless. She gaped for a moment before being brought back to reality by a sharp poke in the back from Willow.

“Oh, um, y-yeah, that would be cool,” she stuttered, blushing.

Angel grinned wide. “Great! How about I pick you up Friday at seven?”

“Sounds good.”

“Cool.” He nodded briefly at Spike, flicker of a smirk at his cousin’s obvious dismay crossing his face. He walked off towards his usual table and seated himself between Trick and Gavin. He turned back around and blew a kiss at Buffy, causing her to blush again at the teasing gesture.

Buffy turned back to her friends, silly grin plastered on her face. Willow gave her a big smile and a thumbs-up. Xander rolled his eyes at Spike and mimed finger gagging. Spike managed a smirk at Xander’s disgust, but the angry frown returned back to his face before too long, completely missed by the other three.

this will not do.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Buffy walked through her front door, the troubles of the morning forgotten in the light of her upcoming date. She dropped her bag just inside the threshold and slammed the door. “Honey, I’m home!” she called through the quiet house.

Suddenly, a noise from upstairs. Something dropped on the floor, shattering. She heard stumbling, and another crash.

Buffy adopted an attack position, in case the intruder decided to come downstairs. She knew it wasn’t Dawn or Mom, they were both at school and work. She cautiously edged toward the staircase, freezing as she heard whoever it was up there slam a closet door and trip over something, a mild curse floating down to her ears.

Footsteps. Loud, running. She heard a door fly open and hit the wall. The intruder let out a primal cry and barreled down the stairs, crashing straight into Buffy.

“Buffy!” the person screamed at her. She gasped as she recognized him.

“Andrew!” Buffy cried with surprise as the person grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Buffy! Sister of mine! How are you?” Andrew babbled excitedly.

But Buffy was still stuck on what the hell he was doing here. “Why are you here? How did you get here?”

Andrew chewed on his bottom lip. “Well, it’s like this,” he started nervously. “Um, Dad kicked me out, and Mom said I was gonna stay here. I wanted to surprise you and Dawn, so I told her not to tell.” He looked up anxiously.

Buffy sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Sure surprised me.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

“Hey, Buffy!”

Buffy looked up at her friends. “Hey, guys.” Willow and Xander sat down.

Xander smirked. “Who’s this? New boyfriend?”

Buffy looked over at where Andrew was sitting beside her. “Eww! No! Brother!”

Xander looked mortified. Willow and Andrew were laughing at him.

“Hey, guys. I’m Andrew, and I just moved here, I’m gonna be staying for, like, the whole year!” He bounced excitedly in his seat. “Buffy is totally the best sister ever, she’s so cool, and all that stuff…”

“I don’t see what’s so great about her,” Spike said, dropping his bag on the floor and plopping into the seat.

“Hey, Spike,” chorused Willow and Xander.

“Andrew, this is Spike, Spike, annoying twin brother.” Buffy turned back to her food.

“Wow, this table suddenly got cold,” the geek observed.

Willow gave a weak smile. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. These two always get like that. We all know it just UST though.” She shrank back slightly when her attempt at lightening the mood made both blondes glare daggers at her.

“So, Bronzing tonight?” Xander said, breaking the tension that had the table frozen.

~~~~~*~~~~~
There was a new band playing in the Bronze that night. Dingoes Ate My Baby. Xander was staring blatantly at that annoying Anya girl again, while the bassist of the band had Willow entranced, as he himself seemed to be by the furtive glances he kept shooting at the redhead.

“What kind of name is ‘Dingoes Ate My Baby?’” Buffy commented dryly.

“I think it’s cool,” Andrew said. “And the lead singer is soo hot.”

“No way. Devon? So not your type. For one, he’s straight,” she replied, wondering for the fifth time that night why she had brought her brother along.

“I’m straight…” Andrew whined unsurely.

Buffy rolled her eyes and went back to her drink. Xander took a deep breath and stood up, walking over to Anya.

Buffy’s eye went to the door as it flew open and two people walked in, doing their best to pretend they didn’t know each other. Spike and Angel.

Spike walked over and sat down at the table, while Angel strode smoothly across the room to where his friends were standing, talking and laughing.

“Hey Spike,” Willow said dazedly, still staring at the boy on the stage.

“Red,” he acknowledged. “Strange couple, wouldn’t have ever expected it. Bit annoying, that bird. Don’t know what he sees in her,” he commented, looking to where Anya and Xander were gyrating on the dance floor.

“No duh. I expected Xander to have at least a tiny bit more taste than that. But I guess I was wrong.”

Andrew noticed Jonathan sitting all by himself, and used this as an excuse to leave the table.

The band had stopped playing, and Willow was going up to talk to the bassist. Buffy and Spike were now sitting alone at the table. The tension was getting thicker by the minute. Just as Spike opened his mouth to ask her to dance, Angel walked up to the table.

“Hey Buffy. I noticed you sitting all by yourself over here and wondered if you’d like to dance.”

She smiled. “Sure.” They walked over to the dance floor together just as a slow song struck up.

Angel put his hands on her waist and pulled her close to his body. She raised her arms and clasped her hands behind his neck, resting her head on his chest. They swayed slowly to the music, unaware of what was going on around them. Buffy closed her eyes and forgot about Spike, about Angel’s weird friends, and just listened to his heart beating rhythmically beneath her cheek.

In my dreams I’m dying all the time
Then I wake its kaleidastrophic mind
I never meant to hurt you
I never meant to lie
So this is goodbye
This is goodbye

Angel felt her in his arms as they danced to the slow movement. For a moment, he wondered why he was doing this to her.

Tell the truth
You never wanted me
Tell me

Spike sat at the table, watching his cousin dancing with the girl that should be his. His heart burned with hatred and jealousy. She would never know. He could tell her, but she wouldn’t listen to him. He felt like going over there and tearing Angel apart, but he managed to restrain himself, knowing that doing so would only make Buffy hate him more. But he wished she could know what Angel really was, what he really was.

In my dreams I’m jealous all the time
When I wake I’m going out of my mind
Going out of my mind

They danced out the rest of the song, each lost in their own thoughts. A new song started, faster this time. Buffy smiled up at Angel as they danced.

Willow was sitting over in a corner with the bassist, chatting animatedly about all sorts of things, from music to computers.

Xander was standing in another corner with Anya, making out like there was no tomorrow.

Andrew was sitting at a table with Jonathan, talking excitedly about all things nerdly, D&D, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. They were reciting movie quotes and bouncing in their chairs, finishing each other’s sentences, it was a little scary.

Spike was sitting alone at the table, silently fuming.

And Angel’s friends were talking and laughing, giving Buffy looks like hungry wolves.

When the song ended, Angel looked at Buffy for a moment. “Will you go out with me on Friday?”

Buffy smiled and said without hesitation, “Yes.”

Angel grinned. He leaned over and kissed her deeply.

Spike sat in his chair, watching the display. He crushed the Styrofoam cup in his hand, causing coke to spill out all over the table. When Buffy pulled away from Angel, flushed and smiling, Spike threw down the cup and stormed out of the club. He was gonna get that girl, no matter what it cost.