Chapter 1

He petite blonde girl sat as far back as she could in her English class. Not because she didn’t like the class, she did, no she was trying to hide from everyone. And the further back she could sit, the fewer people who could see her. She wasn’t popular and never had been. In fact, she was the exact opposite. She had dirty blonde hair that she always wore tied back; she wore silver wire rimmed glasses, with round frames. She wore jeans like everyone, but instead of teaming them with a cool top she wore a sweater or a conservative looking blouse. And she always wore flat black leather ‘sensible’ shoes. Worst of all the clothes were all old- fashioned looking which didn’t work in her favour obviously.

And she had no friends to sit with either; she was a loner. Or a loser if you wanted to be really specific. She spent her lunch hour in the library doing homework or reading a novel. She didn’t want the humiliation of sitting a lone in the lunchroom. If she had no friends to spend the time with then she would rather just spend it somewhere that nobody ever went. Well almost never, once in a while one of the popular kids would come in just so they could crack jokes about her clothes or something, anything that made her feel two inches big. She wasn’t the least popular girl in school but she often felt like it. And there was no denying that she was a huge nerd, both in her own eyes and the eyes of everyone else. There was a particular group though that always wanted to make her life miserable. The group consisted, surprise surprise, of cheerleaders and jocks. A lot of the other kids were bad but this group was the worst. The group was made up of Cordelia Chase or Queen C: The richest girl in school. Her father owned half the town and while Buffy’s own father had money it was nothing compared to that of the Chase family. Then there was Harmony Kendall: Cordelia’s best friend and possibly the ditziest girl you would ever meet. Buffy bet that if you looked up the word bimbo in the dictionary the only definition there would be a picture of Harmony.

Then there was the rest of the squad, who were basically the followers of those two girls. Maybe they would be okay if they weren’t friends with Cordelia and Harmony, but as long as they were, they would continue to treat Buffy like dirt.

Oh, and then there was the guys. They were the worst. They were always so cruel. The main four were Charles Gunn, Wes, Oz and Warren. Gunn, Wes and Oz were pretty bad. Their jokes made her feel so small and… and worthless. Although she supposed they could be worse, there were times when they would give her a break, namely when they saw her start to cry. They would leave her alone then. So she knew they weren’t completely heartless. The same couldn’t be said for the last one though. Warren Meers: Hockey team captain. And he was on the swim team too. He had no heart. He would gladly throw Buffy to the ground when he passed her just to see her scramble around on the floor, tears in her eyes. His jokes were crueler than any that his friends could throw her way. Looking in his eyes, Buffy didn’t see one bit of sorrow about what he put her through. His friends treated him like a God and Buffy was terrified of him.

She looked at them all, they were sitting in the row in front of her, because by sitting a bit away from the back of the room all four guys could get seats grouped more closely together, the back seats were always taken by the time they decided to show up to class. Looking at them she wondered if she would be able to avoid a verbal beating after class. After all it was the last class of the day, maybe they would just want to get out of the class and out of school as soon as possible. Well she would find out soon enough; right then the bell shrieked telling them that the school day was over and the weekend had begun. They were free to go.

Buffy held back a bit, watching the four boys leave, hoping that would be the last she saw them for the next few days. After waiting what she thought was a safe amount of time she left the class and was caught by surprise when he glasses were snatched from her face. Spinning around she found Warren standing behind her, Oz by his side.

“Hey there Summers, trying to avoid me? I have to say, I’m hurt,” he faked a sad look and Buffy tried to snatch her glasses back but he held them behind his back so that she couldn’t.

“Now Buffy, that isn’t nice,” he mocked, “I only wanted to see them.”

“Please give them back,” she pleaded.

“I will, when I feel like it. Bye bitch.” He walked away. Leaving Buffy standing alone. Although this time was more or less tame compared to every other time she saw them, that one name right as he was leaving had just as much effect as if he screamed and shouted cruel things at her for hours on end. Because she believed that there must be something wrong with her if he was treating her the way that he did and had been treating her that way for so long. So to hear him say that made her want to cry. She watched his retreating back, and gasped when she saw him stop and turn to her, he held her glasses, snapping the leg of one side before dropping them to the ground and walking away with his friend, both laughing loudly.

When he was gone she went and picked them up, letting her tears fall. She felt so alone, she just wished there was someone to care. It didn’t matter who, just anyone.

Chapter 2

Buffy lay face down on her bed crying, her broken glasses lying beside her. The leg was hanging off on one side and the lens was slightly scratched. She lay there sobbing out her hurt and anger. Wondering why it was always her that got picked on. She was trying to understand. There must be a reason for it and she had to know what that reason was. It was harder not knowing. She stood up and went to her dresser where a mirror sat and looked in it. She took in her messy ponytail and tear stained cheeks. She sneered at herself and hissed

“Freak,” she began to get angry, talking to herself, replaying all the things they had ever said to her over and over in her head. “No wonder they say all those things about you, look at you. Ugly and weird. You dress like an old woman and wear horrible glasses. Why would anyone want to come near you or be your friend? For god’s sake, freak of the century. Why bother denying it? It’s all true,” she told herself. Her tears kept falling, because she knew that if everyone said all of those things then they had to be true. Right? Because why else would they say them? She stood in front of the mirror crying until she ran out of tears. She didn’t really feel any better but at least the tears finished. Good thing too, she had homework. She went to her backpack, which sat on the desk in front of her window. She looked through her bag to find what she needed when she suddenly felt like there was someone there. Not in the room there, but someone nearby. She looked out of the window thinking that maybe there was someone outside but when she looked there was no sign of anyone.

The following Monday Buffy tried even harder to avoid Warren and the others, she honestly didn’t think she could handle another day like the one she had on Friday. It had gotten to the point where she just wanted to hide in her room forever just so that they wouldn’t pick on her. But she needed her education and her father made her go to school so she couldn’t really get away from them. So if she had to be there she would try her best to not see them too much. However, they always seemed to find her anyway, much to her dismay. It was nearing the end of the school day, she was in her last class and none of them were in it. She had been cornered first thing in the morning by Cordelia who had laughed in her face about what Warren had done to her glasses and made fun of the tape that now held the leg in place. Buffy tried her best to ignore the comments but he didn’t do a great job of it. But at least it was only one of them she had thought. Because one of them, although bad, was way better than all of them. She only hoped that hat one run in would be the only one that day. She decided the best way to make sure it was would be to get out and hurry home as quickly as possible. So when the bell rang she shoved everything in her bag and ran out of the room, headed straight out of the school and bypassing her locker.

She had gotten put of school with no sign of anyone, which she was glad of. The streets were still relatively quiet, although there were a few more students in sight now. She kept walking, not wanting to slow down. She didn’t want to take any chances. She was a few blocks from home when she got an eerie feeling, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. It felt like someone was watching her, she felt like there were eyes boring into her skull. She spun around, looking to see if maybe Warren and the others had seen her walking and were following her. But there was nobody in sight. She looked around a bit more but still she saw nothings. ‘Must be getting paranoid,’ she thought to herself ‘I just always expect someone to be there. I hate Warren, it’s his fault.’ With that thought she started walking again, a bit faster. She just wanted to get home.

On the street where Buffy felt she was being watched sat a black car, with the windows blacked out so you couldn’t see inside. So you couldn’t be sure if there was anyone inside the car or not. Well not until, once Buffy was out of sight, turning the corner to the next street, the black car drove off.

“Yeah well, you know what it’s like. Oh wait you don’t because you have friends.” The group burst into laughter. They were standing around on the street corner talking and joking. I was their favourite pastime, well one of them. Their favourite should be happening soon enough. They did their favourite thing everyday and today wouldn’t be any different, so while they waited the six friends continued joking.

Buffy was nearing closer to home; now only two blocks from her house. She turned the corner to walk the final distance and stopped in her tracks. Standing a few feet away was Warren, Cordelia and the rest of their group. She sighed and considered turning and walking in the other direction but they had already seen her, she could tell, and so there was no point. With a sigh she kept walking, hoping that they would ignore her and let her walk on by. She knew she was wishing for a miracle that would never happen but ruining into them was more than she could deal with. As she got closer Warren moved to block her path.

With a sigh Buffy attempted to walk around him but this time she was cut of by Cordelia and Harmony,

“Hi Buffy, nice blouse, where did you buy it? Grandmother’s are us?”

Harmony laughed at Cordelia’s joke along with everyone else while Buffy looked down at her outfit self- consciously. Harmony decided to keep the jokes up and piped in,

“No seriously, you’re outfit is nice Buffy. At least it was in 1957!”

Buffy crossed her arms to hide the conservative blouse, she knew her clothes weren’t fashionable but it still hurt when people made fun of it all the time. None of the girls said anything more, which she was relieved about but unfortunately it was Warren’s turn to have a go.

He stood in front of her, looking at her taped up glasses, he tapped the lens and asked,

“What happened Buff, drop your glasses?” His face was a perfect picture of innocence, “you know you really should be more careful Buffy, you’re far to clumsy. You’re always falling.” He stuck his foot out and swept her foot from under her and watched as she fell to the ground. “See.”

The group laughed at Buffy’s expense once again while Buffy was still on the ground, picking up what she had dropped and trying not to burst into tears. It was hard enough dealing with them any other day and today was even harder. She had finally had enough but there was nothing she could do to stop it.

They kept it up for a few more minutes, Buffy still on the ground while they poked fun at her. She was afraid that if she stood up again he would push her down so she stayed where she was, and endured her daily torture at their hands. She lowered her head as Warren ranted at her about how she was an ugly freak and a loser. When she heard a new voice,

“Hey guys, what’s going on?”

Buffy looked up to see that Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg had joined the group. The two friends had been walking home when they had seen the group with Buffy on the ground and had gone to see what was going on.

“Hey Harris, we were just having a little chat with Buffy here.” Warren answered.

“Well, she doesn’t look like she’s enjoying this chat so leave her alone.”

“Come on Harris, we’re only having some fun,” Warren told him.

Xander shrugged, “Look guys, I don’t care what you do, but give her a break. Looks like she’s had enough for today. Lay off for a bit.”

Xander was neither popular nor unpopular but he also wasn’t Buffy’s friend. But she was glad that maybe someone would persuade Warren and the others to leave her alone.

“Look Harris, this has nothing to do with you. So unless you want to end up ion the ground with her, I suggest you just keep on walking.”

Xander and Willow shared a look.

“I’m getting bored now anyway,” Cordelia said, she couldn’t be bothered listening to a lecture from the likes of Xander and Willow. “Let’s just go.”

Warren nodded, “Fine, let’s go.” He looked back at Buffy, “See ya later Buff, and watch you don’t hurt yourself again.” He gave her a cruel smile before walking off with the others.

Buffy scrambled up from the ground and smiled at Willow and Xander, “Thanks.”

“It’s ok,” Willow answered.

“Yeah don’t mention it,” Xander added.

Buffy smiled again and then Xander said, “Well, we better get going.”

Buffy said goodbye and watched them go. She stood alone on the pavement and wiped away a few stray tears that had fallen. When she had organised herself a bit she began to walk. She walked away and never noticed the black car with blacked out window that pulled away from the curb across the street and drove past.