Buffy Summers is a princess.
Everyone knows this.
It’s obvious in the way she smiles; in the way she flicks her California-beach blonde hair over her shoulder in such a care-free manner. It’s obvious in the way that men and boys alike, fall at her feet.
Still, she doesn’t seem to know it.
She’s one of those people who flits through life without a care in the world. She doesn’t bother with school work much, because it’s not the cool thing to do. She makes her friends laugh when she says this, but they all agree. Everyone agrees with Buffy.
She’s full of romantic ideals too; always turning guys down when they ask her out, because they’re not the one she dreamed of when she was a little girl.
She’s sweet, you could say, but not all that bright. Not street smart. Certainly not intelligent.
She’s living out of daddy’s wallet; getting her hair dyed at a fancy salon every week with momma. She’s their little princess too.
Little Princess Buffy. Or Elizabeth, as her parents prefer for her to be referred to as.
She lives in a bubble, some say, a bubble of laughter and friendship that protects her from the harsh realities of real life. Sometimes she sees real life peeking in at her, and it makes her shudder. Sometimes real life talks to her, in the form of an annoyed teacher, or a jealous classmate. But not often, because everyone knows she’s above them in her bubble.
“Buffy Summers, your assignment is a week overdue.”
She shrugs, because it really doesn’t matter to her. And because it doesn’t matter to her, there’s not a lot the teacher can threaten her with. Failing? Who cares? Not Buffy, that’s for sure.
“Ha- Buffy, the way you put Miss Applebee back in her place just then was like, totally first-rate.”
“She just needs to understand my extreme priorities.”
“Extreme. You’re like, so right girlfriend. God, I wish I could be more like you.”
Buffy’s smile is a little bit too grand, because a lot of the time she isn’t really sure what she’s smiling about, so she has to force it onto her face.
“You’re like, super-sweet.”
Her best friends are Cordelia and Darla; two beautiful girls who are fiercely loyal to her and to her word. They follow her around like puppies a lot of the time, telling her how wonderful and perfect she is, as if hoping Buffy will pat the tops of their silky heads.
Buffy humours them, since she’s known them her whole life. But does she really know them? Do they ever really show their true selves around her?
Still, she stays with them because she doesn’t no any different. Any better.
Her group rallies the school; noticed and watched everywhere they go. They’re the rulers of the school corridors.
And then there are the guys. All of them are gagging for the virginal innocence of Buffy, but they’ll settle for Darla or Cordy, because having one of her followers is almost good enough. At least, it ups the street credibility a little.
And at the centre, the very heart of that group of young men, is Liam Angel. Angel to his friends.
The most sought after guy in the whole of Sunnydale High; but the only girl he wants is Buffy.
It’s garishly obvious to everyone in the school that Liam Angel wants to claim Buffy Summers as his own; garishly obvious to everyone except Buffy Summers herself, that is. Because, as was already mentioned, she’s not a particularly bright girl.
“So you’re gonna screw her?” asks one of Angel’s cronies, Riley Finn.
Angel smirks, “You bet.” He tells his friends, who all grin like Cheshire cats.
They’re jealous, of course, because they know that Angel really is the only one of them who could possibly lull the girl into bed. Firstly; he’s a great actor. Second; he’s patient.
And thirdly; every other girl in the school is longing for him to lull her into bed.
“Simple.” Says Angel. “It might take a while, but it’ll be worth it to do a virgin. Especially this virgin.” He added.
His friends all grin and snigger, and Angel smirks.
“Hey!” Angel says, catching up with the pretty young blond, “It’s Buffy right?”
Darla and Cordy look at each other, before quickly steaming on ahead of their friend.
“Catch ya later Buff,” Darla calls back to her.
Buffy blinks for a moment, before turning to Angel. “Yeah, it’s Buffy.” She says. She smiles broadly; another of those smiles which she produces when she isn’t really sure what else to do. “And you’re Liam.”
“Call me Angel.” He says, “Everyone else does.”
“Oh,” Buffy smiles again, “Okay, like, that’s cool!”
Angel beams at her, and though his toothy grin momentarily unsettles her, she quickly pushes the feeling aside. After all, this is Liam Angel.
“So, what’s your next lesson?” he asks, and she rolls her eyes as she groans;
“English Literature. Like, colour me bored.”
Angel chuckles, “I’ll walk you if you like.” He offers, making Buffy’s heart flutter a little.
“Oh, gosh…” she says, “Sure, I’d really like that.”
In the weeks that follow, Angel works at becoming the man Buffy had dreamt about as a little girl.
He walks her to every lesson, opens every door for her, compliments her hair and outfit, drives her home from school in his Jag.
He’s a perfect gentleman.
And Buffy’s heart flutters with joy when he asks her out.
“Buffy-” he says, his face softened by the warm sunlight shinning into his car, “Getting to know you over these past few weeks has been really great.”
“I totally agree.” She smiles.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so charismatic and beautiful,” Angel continues, his voice filled with emotion. “You’ve changed everything for me Buff, and I don’t think I can carry on, just being your friend.”
“Angel…” she whispers, “What are you saying?”
“I just wondered whether you would like to go out with me.” He says, his face dipping shyly, “Just one night out, to the movies. If it doesn’t feel right then that’s fine, we can leave it right there. But I think we’d be really great together Buff.”
“Oh!” Buffy says, quickly repressing the desire to squeal like the preppy teenaged girl she really is. “Oh gosh, of course Angel!”
He glances back up again; his eyes ecstatic, “Really?”
“Yes!” Buffy cries, throwing her arms around his neck, “Oh Angel- how could I ever turn you down?”
He holds her tightly; savouring the feeling of her small body pressed against his; and as he gazes over her shoulder, listening to her gush about how long she’s liked him; he smirks.
A dark and self-satisfied smirk.
“So I was like, yeah, totally!” Buffy giggles as she links arms with Cordelia excitedly, “Can you believe it guys? Liam Angel!”
“Notorious bad boy.” says Darla seductively, “Buffy dear, I’m almost jealous.”
“So where’s he taking you?” Cordy asks, causing Buffy to squeal again.
“The movies,” she says; her voice still high with excitement, “I don’t know what we’re watching yet, but I know that it’ll be- Oh, there he is!”
“Hey Summers.” Angel says, swooping her into his arms and twirling her around; relishing in her giggles of delight, before setting her back down on the floor again, “And how are we this morning?”
“Totally awesome!” she gushes, gazing at him with open adoration. “I hope you don’t mind, but I told Cordy and Darla about us.”
Angel smiles broadly.
“Of course I don’t mind.” He says, thinking about how great this relationship will make him look. How envious the other guys will be. “We should tell everybody.”
“You’re so right.” Buffy agrees, and her eyes are dreamy again as she gazes at him. “Everyone will be so happy for us.”
Willow Rosenberg is a nerd, and this is a fairly well-known fact of life.
She likes to spend her time in the school library, reading, studying or just hanging out with her best friend Xander, and the school librarian, Mr Giles.
Although she’s quite a pretty girl, she is not very highly regarded at all by the guys of Angel’s gang, or the girls of Buffy’s gang. It seems that being smart automatically makes you uncool at Sunnydale High. Not that she particularly cares.
In fact, she wouldn’t have a thing to do with any of them if she could help it, but unfortunately Liam Angel is failing math, and three months ago Principle Snyder announced that she would be tutoring him up until the end of year exams.
At first she’d flat out refused, but Principle Snyder had threatened her near perfect grade card, and Willow had finally caved; agreeing to help Angel with his math, twice a week, after school.
“It’s like detention.” Angel tells his angry looking girlfriend. “But instead of being told what to do by a teacher, it’s some swatty little girl called Rosenberg.”
Buffy scowls; outraged that her boyfriend is being treated in such a way. “Can’t you just tell her to get lost?” she asks, pouting adorably. “I wanted to go out with you to the Mall this afternoon.”
“Sorry babe.” Angel replies.
Buffy shrugs, then announces that she’ll just tag along with him to his math lesson instead, “I mean, it’s like, only an hour right?”
“Right.”
Willow is more than a little surprised when she sees Buffy Summers stroll into her allocated classroom, behind Angel. But she knows better than to say anything; because questioning the popular people leads to having your head bitten off.
“Well…” she says hesitantly, glancing down at the book she held open in front of her, more than a little nervously. “I thought we might look a trig today.”
“Oh God!” says Buffy, and she turns to her boyfriend, “Is this girl for real?”
“Unfortunately yes.” Angel says grimly.
“So I’m gonna start with the Tan rule if that’s alright with you,” Willow continues, pretending she can’t hear what they’re saying.
“She’s actually socially retarded.” Angel informs Buffy, who sniggers despite herself. “I don’t think she even knows where the Mall is babe.”
Willow forces herself to look up into their smug faces, before saying, “An easy way to remember-”
“And she thinks this stuff is important?” Buffy asks, slightly incredulous. “School is nothing.”
Willow looks at the girl with slight surprise, before remembering what everyone says about her living out of her father’s wallet, and relying on her looks for the future that will no doubt fall into her lap.
“Please…” Willow says, her voice subdued, as she really doesn’t want to beg with this girl. “If Liam fails his end of year exams then I fail too.”
Buffy snorts, she can’t help it, “Seriously?”
“Not really.” Angel says, “If I fail math then she gets an F for communication. No one else even gets a communication grade anyway.”
“Oh.” Buffy rolls her eyes, “Lame. Look-” she says to Willow, “Newsflash. None of this matters in the real world; what matters are, like, your people skills and your telephone voice, so I don’t see why you’re stressing out.”
Willow just stares back at her.
“God!” Buffy cries, “You can’t seriously be this much of a freak, I mean, this is a joke right?”
Willow blushes horribly, before grabbing her bag and fleeing the room.
For a second, Buffy feels guilt. But then she realises Angel is now hers for the afternoon, and she squeals as she says,
“Mall?”
This has to be the awesomest thing that has ever happened to her.
Buffy can hardly believe that she’s here right now; standing beneath the stars with Liam Angel’s warm arms wrapped around her slight body.
Angel...
So what if wise men say ‘only fools rush in’- she’s falling in love; falling, toppling, tumbling; and she doesn’t care.
All that matters in this moment is the feel of his warm breath against her cheek.
The caress of his bare arms against hers.
She could stand this way forever. Forever and ever.
He’s the only one she wants and she knows, she knows, he’s the only man she will ever love in all her life.
Buffy and Angel are six months into their beautiful relationship when Drusilla joins Sunnydale High, and though Angel seems charmed by the strange, dark-haired girl, Buffy takes an instant dislike to her. Though of course, she would never show it.
“I’m Drusilla.” She says, taking Buffy’s hand tightly in her own. “I just moved here from England.”
“Oh.” Buffy says, unable to muster the enthusiasm. “Neat.”
“You know, I’m originally from Ireland.” Angel offers. He’s completely unable to take his eyes from Drusilla; a fact that Buffy can’t seem to ignore. She feels an uneasy feeling settle in the pit of her stomach as Drusilla smiles brightly.
“Ireland’s a magnificent place.” She says, “I stayed there with relatives one summer. Which part are you from?”
Buffy feels herself switch off as her boyfriend and the new girl begin to converse like old friends about their homelands.
“I like California.” She eventually offers weakly, and both Angel and Drusilla look at her oddly, before returning to their conversation.
Oh, this is so not looking good.
It takes Angel a whole month, before he finally cheats on Buffy with Drusilla.
‘She’s made me wait too long’ he justifies to himself as he lets his hands trail over Drusilla’s naked form. ‘She must know I have needs. I’m a man after all. If anything, it’s her fault.’
Drusilla grins at him wickedly as he begins to move above her.
“Are you thinking about that little whore of yours?” she asks, tracing her fingers over the furrows of his brow. She spits the name; “Buffy?”
“No.” he says, pressing his lips to hers, “Never. She’s nothing next to you Dru. A girl; a kid.”
Drusilla smirks as he calls her name, instead of his girlfriend’s.
They continue that way for months; sleeping together in secret. Sneaking off to the janitor’s closet every day after lunch. Stolen moments behind the bike shed. Footsie under the cafeteria table.
Buffy, of course, doesn’t notice.
She lives her life oblivious to their sordid little affair, and she even forces herself to consider Drusilla a friend.
In fact, Buffy Summers is perfectly happy.
In just a few weeks time, she and Angel will be celebrating their year anniversary, and she knows perfectly well what will happen that night.
Angel’s hinted, of course. Her parents are going to be out of town and Angel has announced that he will be staying the night with her for the first time.
Now, Buffy might not be the brightest penny in the jar, but she knows what this means.
He’s going to make love to her for the very first time. And she can hardly wait.
“My cousin’s having a party this weekend.” Angel tells her one day, three weeks before their anniversary. “He’s at college so it’s going to be pretty wild. I told him we’d be there.”
“Oh!” Buffy squeals; invigorated by the idea of a wild party with Angel. “Awesome!”
“Yeah?” Angel asks, slightly taken aback by her reaction. Maybe he has forgotten recently just how cute Buffy really is. “You wanna go?”
“Oh, deffo!” she says, “I have this totally neat new outfit that you’ll just die when you see. Can we invite Cordy and Darla?”
Angel notices when she doesn’t mention Drusilla, but he doesn’t say anything.
“My cousin said it’s gotta be pretty exclusive, you know-” he says, “Wouldn’t be cool to have too many high school kids showing up.”
“Oh, right…” Buffy says, “Well never mind. But gosh, they’re gonna be so jealous.”
She giggles, before pressing her lips to Angel’s.
Angel agreed to meet her at the party, so Buffy sits awkwardly beside the dance floor as she waits for him to show up.
He was certainly right about the party being wild. There’s alcohol free-flowing from every angle, and Buffy has to avoid meeting the eyes of some of the drunk and leering frat boys.
Actually, she’s a little scared.
“Where are you Angel?” she mutters aloud, crossing her long and exposed legs, feeling suddenly very self-concious.
She glances down at her watch.
Well, okay, he’s only forty five minutes late, but she’s really not enjoying the heavy feeling she can feel in the pit of her stomach every time another drunken frat guy stumbles in her direction.
“Hello Princess.”
She stands up quickly and makes her way over to the other side of the room where she sits down again.
She feels like her skirt is riding up, but she’s scared to stand and sort it out.
Maybe she should get a drink? No, bad idea. Alcohol and Buffy are pretty unmixy things after all.
“You…ga…my princess?” he’s practically out of his face.
Buffy scrunches her nose up in disgust, trying to move away from him.
“Hey- back off Kane.” Says a voice, and Buffy looks up to see a tall, dark haired guy. It’s not Angel. “Is he bothering you?”
Buffy nods slightly, and the tall, dark haired guy pushes ‘Kane’ out of his way, before sitting down beside Buffy.
“You look little bit lost babe.”
Buffy shrugs, “I’m waiting for my boyfriend.”
“Oh?” the guy asks, “Can I get you a drink while you wait?”
Buffy stares at him, feeling a little out of her depth. Should she accept the drink and risk making a drunken fool of herself, or refuse it and make herself look like a silly little child?
“Sure.” She says eventually, “Just a vodka and lemonade.”
The guy smiles at her as he nods, “Wait here.”
“Uhhg,” grunts Angel, “I should…. Really be at the party with-”
“Don’t say that bitch’s name!” Drusilla cries, clawing his bare chest.
“Never,” Angel quickly agrees, covering her mouth with his own. “Nothing compared to you Dru. Nothing.”
He stands in the kitchen pouring a reasonable amount of vodka into the young girl’s cup, before mixing in the lemonade.
Then he glances at the door, before digging a small plastic container out of his pocket, and tipping its contents into her drink.
It fizzes as he stirs it.
Then he grins, dropping a straw into the cup and a slice of lemon, before going back into the party to find his new friend.
A/N: Wow, that was quite a chapter to write! Firstly, I just wanted to point out that I used a different writing style [and even a completely different tense] as a way to emphasize that this chapter is almost like a completely different story. I hope that was effective [and not too confusing!]. The next chapter will pick up where this one left off, to give you Buffy’s complete back-story, so please keep reading and thank you for all your lovely reviews!
Thank you, lotsa love, Dee xxx