*****
Chapter One: New Year. New Me.
The hall was over crowed with the throng of teens as they wiggled, squirmed, and push their way up and down it. Some rested against lockers, or stood talking with friends. Buffy was still amongst all this, oblivious to all around her as her eyes absorbed the one person she’d been longing to see.
She stood. She stared. She was chewing her bottom lip in deep contemplation. He was there, in the flesh, and only twenty feet away, casually leaning his head back on his locker. Because it was, his. It had been his since Freshmen year, not her Freshmen year but his. He’d been held back a year. She always guessed that he felt he was too cool for school. But obviously even those who thought that way had to attend classes on a regular basis to obtain their diploma and graduate.
But despite the minor drawback he was everything to her. He was the reason that her heart skipped a beat. He was the small bounce that Buffy sometimes held in her step. He was the naughty fuel that drove her wildest fantasies. Though said fantasies were tame lacking imagination. It was as if she tried, but Buffy was sourly lacking in the lovin’ with my honey department. She had yet to truly be kisses, never mind bumping uglies with a guy.
She sighed.
“William – Spike – Pratt. God, I love the way that sounds. Sometimes I feel like some sick, twisted, demented person who stands and gawks at a beautiful creature which is completely unattainable. Have I stooped so low on the stalking scale that I’ve reduced him to a piece of meat? There for my greedy eyes?
Is he an animal on display for my viewing satisfaction only? But it’s not like it’s my fault. I’m weak and full of self lusting, one cannot judge me! I mean, it’s him! He gorgeous! Not a single flaw on him. He’s perfect and I’m in love with that. No, scratch that, I’m in love with him. Spike is a girl’s walking fantasy with the way cool leather coat, the bleached blond hair, and his oh so sexy cheek bones. Should I even be noticing cheek bones? I mean I’m only fifteen. *sigh*
It’s weird. It’s like my whole life centers around a guy who doesn’t even know that I exist. Hell, I could be drowning in front of him stark naked, and he wouldn’t even notice. God, why is the world so cruel?”
Buffy sighed, mouthing his name in a dream like state. Spike. His nickname only causing her cheeks to redden more as she thought of all the reasons why he was given that moniker.
“Buffy! Buffy!” A voice shouted. Faith sighed as she walked up to her friend, then standing in front of her, blocking her perfectly good view of Spike. Buffy frowned.
“I’ve been calling you for like five seconds.” The girl looked down at her watch then over her shoulder to where her friend was gazing, that glazed over lust filled look in her eye. Didn’t take a genius to guess who had her in La La Land. “Still lusting over “Mr. Leather” I see.” Faith added with a smirk.
Buffy pursed her lips as she glared at her. “I was so not lusting.” Faith only snorted in reply.
Buffy huffed. “Fine! I was lusting, but only a little. I haven’t seen him in,” she paused to count out in her head when was the last time she had laid eyes on him. “seventeen hours. My Spike reservoir is low. It needed a refill.”
Faith was about to reply when she heard her voice being yelled over the throng of kids. Both girls glanced towards the south end of the hallway, were the entrance to the school was. There, in the army green cargo shorts and tacky Hawaiian shirt stood Faith’s long time best friend, Xander Harris. He weaved his way through some kids before reaching them with a wave a smile.
Buffy hung back and watched the two laugh and joke, that special way that was totally Faith and Xander. Faith Lehane and Xander Harris had been best friends for as long as Buffy had seen them. One day she would have to ask how they met.
Turning her eyes wandered the hall spotting kids here and, there that she knew only throw classes together, before steeling one more glace at the secret love of hers. Buffy’s brow knitted together when she spotted her. A lifetime seemed to have passed since they last spoken to each other.
“Willow Rosenberg. The all time best friend that I had until we parted ways, in a not so pleasant way in fact. We’ve been friends forever, funny how you just drift apart. But I wouldn’t actually call it drifting; it was more of a tugging on my end. I decided that it was time to spread my wings and fly. She was safe. She was home. She was all I knew for like… forever. We did everything together. My mom even has a picture of us bathing together when we were like three.
It’s just. How do you tell someone whom you’ve been friends with since birth that you need to see other people? You just can’t. There is no easy way to go about it. No matter how you say it, how nice you word it, they still get hurt. It’s been three months since we last spoke. Since we “broke up.” And she still refuses to speak to me. To look at me. She won’t even lend me a pencil in science class. But I guess she has the right to her feelings.”
Buffy tried to wave but Willow completely ignored her, acting as if she didn’t even see her standing there. Instead she waved to another girl further down the hall before continuing on her way.
Buffy frowned. At least she tried. With a sigh she turned back to her friends. Xander was talking animatedly about some stupid Star Trek marathon that was on last night. Faith was listening but still making fun of him all the while. Buffy giggled, she was glad that she made the decision to get to know them, and that they let her into their merry band of two, and made it three.
*****
Turning the water off Buffy shock the excess off her hands and reached for a paper towel. Xander anticipated her move and ripped a few piece from the dispenser then handed them to her. She accepted with a small smile.
Faith walked out of the bathroom stall; toilet flushing behind her. “So, B, give anymore thought to what I said?”
Buffy frowned curling a lock of her chestnut hair around her finger. “I don’t know… I mean. It’s a big change.”
“Duh, hence you doing it. It’ll be an added bonus to the new you.” Faith walked over to the girl tossing her arm over her shoulder. “And it will totally bring out your eyes. Won’t it Xander?”
“Huh, oh, yeah. It would Buffy.” Xander replied offhandedly. He was to busy admiring Faith.
The bell rang before she could give an answer, which Buffy was grateful for. Turning she smiled at her friends then ran out of the girls bathroom and to her fourth period class.
*****
The calls seemed to have droned on and on, causing Buffy to glace at the clock hanging on the wall. Did the minute hand even move since the last time she looked at it? Well if it had it didn’t seem that way to her. She tried to muffle the yawn that wanted to break through, and almost stifled the urge until it fought its way out at the last moment.
“Am I boring you, Miss. Summers?” Mister Henderson questioned.
Eyes winding Buffy quickly shook her head in the negative. He was about to say something else when the class door opened and in walked Spike. Mister Henderson’s wrath quickly turned to the other teen.
“I see you’ve decided to grace us with your presence today. Maybe if you did this more often last year then you wouldn’t have to repeat my class this year, Mr. Pratt.” A few kids snickered at the teacher’s remark. Spike only smirked giving him the two fingered salute. Henderson narrowed his eyes, scribbled something down in his notebook that accompanied him during class, and then turned his attention back to his students.
Buffy just sat and stared. He was in her class. HE. As in Spike, was in her class. Oh, God. Buffy had to fight the urge of beating her head off her desk several times before she was able to center herself. Her hands started to tremble and she was quite sure there were some sweating of the palms, but it was totally understandable. William (Spike her brain shouted) Pratt was in her class, sitting only a few feet way from her. At that moment he looked up from something he was drawing on the desk, and smirked at her. He’s blue eyes dancing with mischief.
She was caught, just like a deer in headlights. And the bleached blond sitting across from her was the car, intent on running her over. Had he caught her ogling him? Did he know that she was ogling him? No, he couldn’t have. Just like he wasn’t now smirking at her. She looked to her left them to her right, and despite every cell screaming at her not to look back at him, she did. This time Spike wiggled his eyebrows along with the smirk. Buffy’s eyes widened and she could feel her checks turning red. She quickly turned away and started scribbling in her notebook.
“God, could I be even more a moron. Hello, he actually made some kind of contact with me and what do I do? I totally flake. Go all Blushy Buffy on him and spaz out. Now he probably thinks I’m a dork. Scratch that. He KNOWS that I’m a dork.”
*****
“And you looked away?” Faith asked, mouth hanging open.
Buffy ducked her head, reaching up to push her hair behind her ear, then remembered that it was currently wrapped in a plastic shower cap. “Umm, yeah. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Well, for starters you should have smirked back.” The other girl answered peeking into a cabinet. She closed it then turned to Xander. “Am I right? Must I teach her everything?” The boy only nodded watching her as she turned back around to look through another cabinet.
“I don’t know how to smirk, well not the way he did it. On me it would look as if I were having a massive seizure or something. Totally spaz worthy.” Buffy patted at the top of her head. “My scalp is starting to burn. Can I was this stuff out?”
*****
She frowned. This was not the girl that went into the shower only ten minutes ago. “Maybe this was a huge mistake.”
“It wasn’t a mistake. Look at you. You look hot!” Faith said coming to stand behind her, gazing at Buffy’s reflection in the mirror.
Xander was lounging on the bed playing with her stuffed pig Mr. Gordo. “Yeah, Buff, you look pretty.”
Faith rolled her eyes. “Just pretty? Please. You look like a blonde sex kitten.” Buffy arched her brow. “Okay, fine, a blonde sex kitten in the making. Once it’s dried and with some curls you’ll see. You’ll be beating the boys off with a stick.”
That earned a small smile from Buffy who was still frowning at the limp blonde mess that was her new dye job. “But I don’t want to beat boys off. Ewww! That totally came out wrong.”
Faith snorted. “Yeah, ‘cause we know there’s only one boy whom you want to beat off.” She got up and started stumbling around the room, fluttering her eyes over dramatically, and clutching her hands to her heart. “Oh, Spike, you’re the only boy for me. I want to do things to you that I can’t even say.” Faith collapsed onto the bed in a fit of giggles, Xander joining her.
Buffy turned around snatched up her towel to throw it at them. “That’s so not funny. And I do not act like that around him.”
Xander stopped laughing. “Buffy, you can’t even form a coherent thought when Spike’s in the area. In your words you are a spaz.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
*****
Joyce walked into the kitchen and sidestepped the body that was hanging halfway out the fridge. “Honey, don’t spoil you dinner with junk.”
Buffy stood closing the door behind her. “I’m not, Mom. Just grabbing a diet coke.”
“So, how was…” Joyce trailed off once getting a good look at her child. “You’ve dyed your hair.”
“Yeah,” she reached up pulling a few strands to her face and inspecting them. “Do you like it?”
Her mother smiled. “Yes, it’s nice. I just wished you would have discussed this with me before you went ahead and did it. That’s all.”
“I’m fifteen, Mom, not twelve. I think this hardly falls under ‘I need to discuss this with Mom’ category. I don’t even see what the big deal is. All I did was dye my hair!”
“Calm down. I didn’t mean it like that. I know how old you are, I did give birth to you. All I’m saying is…”
Buffy cut her off. “All you’re saying is that you want to control my life. But you’re not. I can make my own decisions.” With that Buffy stormed out of the kitchen and up to her bedroom.
Hank walked into the kitchen. “What was that all about?” He looked up the steps in confusion only catching the middle and end of the heated argument.
With a sigh, Joyce walked over to her husband throwing her arms around him. He returned the gesture and hugged her. “That, I’m afraid is our daughter turning into a young woman.”
“And the new hair color.”
“Rebellion. I think. I need to hit those parenting books once more.”
*****
A/N: Well that was chapter one. What do you think? Any good? Do you want me to continue?
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!