Disclaimer: Nothing from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Cruel Intentions is mine. No infringement intended. Don’t sue.
Rating: PG-15 (for language)
Summary: Buffy and Kathryn are twins. Chance meetings cause things to stir.
Author’s Note: AU Challenge by Angelic Mexx. Kathryn’s character may be a bit warped at times, but I’ll try to make her character more like in the movie as it goes on. And yes, Mai Lee is their Vietnamese maid/servant. Angel is Kathryn’s boyfriend, but has never met Buffy nor ever even heard of her.
Timeline: They’re in their second week of senior year (1998).
Feedback: It wouldn’t hurt…

Part 1

“Buffy!” Kathryn Summers called out to her twin sister in anger. “Have you taken my dress? You know, the Dior one I got last week?”

Buffy looked down sadly at the beautiful dress in her hands. She wished she could have afforded to buy it. Unfortunately, her parents seemed to like to play favourites, spoiling the older twin with lavish gifts whenever she wanted something and neglecting Buffy and the youngest of the Summers family, Dawn.

Despite all the favouritism, Buffy wasn’t envious of her older sister. She always had expectations to live up to, always had to pretend to be someone she wasn’t, had to do things the person she was before wouldn’t have done. Buffy always wondered why her twin sister was considered the prettiest girl in SHS—they looked exactly same only with different coloured hair. Buffy was blonde and Kathryn was a brunette. Extra dark.

The person Kathryn had been before was so much like Buffy. The two had been practically inseparable, until they moved to Sunnydale. Kathryn had befriended Cordelia Chase whereas Buffy clicked immediately with Willow Rosenberg—one of the nicest people in the whole of Sunnydale Junior High, but not exactly the most popular.

It all went downhill from there.

Maybe it was their parents’ fault, but Kathryn didn’t exactly turn into a devious spoilt bitch overnight.

Now, in their final year of high school, Kathryn had become the biggest bitch in Sunnydale High history, outshining Cordelia by miles. Of course, at home, she was quite the charmer, thus winning the favouritism of their parents. She treated Buffy like her servant, but most of the time, Buffy ignored her and locked herself in her room with her leather-bound diary, with her CD player playing CDs like Sarah McLachlan, Splendid, Alison Kraus and other artists Kathryn claimed she’d never listen to. Buffy caught her one time though, and Kathryn was so mad she threw a tantrum and broke the three vases in the living room.

Kathryn blamed the mess on Buffy’s chinchilla, a beautiful feline by the name of Mr Gordo. It was a wonder they even let Buffy keep the cat—the vases had been their mother’s family heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation since 1879.

Buffy glumly stepped outside her room, disdainfully holding the dress in her hands. “Here. I think Mai Lee just put it in the wrong pile of washing.”

“I didn’t put it in the wash.” Kathryn gave Buffy a frigid stare and walked away with the dress in her hands and bad mood for the rest of the day. Dawn was poking her head out of her door to see what all the commotion was about, even though she had gotten used to the whole thing over the years. She was just waiting for the day when Buffy would fight back, dye her hair brown or wear exactly the same thing as her twin—just to piss her off. When the 14 year old noticed she’d been spotted, her eyes went wide and she ducked back behind the safety of her door.

Buffy sighed and went back in her room. Sometimes you wonder if things would’ve turned out differently if this, this and this didn’t happen, but Buffy knew that even if you wondered about it, it’d never happen. Buffy shrugged into her new pale blue pinstriped blouse and went downstairs to grab an aspirin and her favourite embroidered cardigan.

Really, it was a much too typical morning for Buffy—Kathryn shouting for something, Buffy having to have an aspirin because of it…it was all fine and dandy…

*****

“Hey Will, Xand, Oz. How was your weekend?” Buffy sat down with them on one of the benches outside SHS.

“Uneventful, as usual. You?” Xander Harris was munching on an apple, his attention focussed solely on the fruit.

“Same as always.”

“Oz had a gig in UC Sunnydale with the Dingoes. They were really good, weren’t you Oz?” Willow was her usual Monday perky self, her excitement over school getting the better of her. She was clinging to Oz’s arm, almost possessively so.

“I wouldn’t say that exactly. We were better than usual though.” Oz shrugged and spotted Faith and Spike walking towards them. As usual, they were bickering like little old ladies (even though little old ladies hardly ever bicker).

“Spike, just drop it already.” Faith ripped her attention away from her boyfriend long enough to greet everyone. “Hey guys. Spike’s just being a bastard. See you all later ‘k?” Faith ran after Spike, frantically trying to convince him she wasn’t cheating on him. Of course, she was, but she liked to have Spike as her faithful puppy dog.

“She needs help. And a new wardrobe. Is it just me or has she worn leather pants every day for the past 2 weeks?” Buffy asked quietly.

“We should take her shopping,” Willow answered happily, still giddy from the excitement of her weekend.

“Yeah, and what would the benefit out of that be? Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Cordelia sneered at her and brusquely strutted off with her followers most likely to talk to Kathryn (although it wasn’t likely that Kathryn would be at school so early) about their respective weekends. Maybe even insult a few more innocent souls along the way.

“Bitch.” Buffy sneered back quietly. “Don’t listen to her, she’s just Cordelia,” Buffy put her hand on Willow’s shoulder and comfort and Willow smiled back, her perky mood snapping back in place. “Besides, you should be thankful that it wasn’t Kathryn who eavesdropped on our conversation. I swear, I don’t know how I even put up with her.”

“Why is everyone so happy today? It’s Monday, and I didn’t do my history homework. Anyone here have some I can copy?”

“Yeah, in my locker. You can copy it during Study Hall.” Willow picked her backpack from the ground and slung it over her shoulder. “I have to see Miss Calendar, I’m helping her with a new database system for the admin staff. See you all in history.”

“Bye.”

Willow waved and left with Oz in tow. He’d have her smiling in no time, of that, Buffy was sure.

“Wow, aren’t they the dependent type today.” Xander threw the core of his apple into the bin and wiped his hands on his pants--the guy way of cleaning their hands. “Why with the glum?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about Buffy. She’s fine.” Buffy stared dreamily up at the clear blue sky. She wished that the weather would stop contradicting her moods; it was always too sunny.

Just then, Faith burst out of SHS’s front doors in a rage, stomping over to where Buffy and Xander were sitting. It wasn’t quite enough to snap the blonde out of her daze, but she did. Eventually.

“I’m officially angry at Spike okay? If you see him, tell him that for me.”

“I think he would’ve gotten the message by now. Besides, I thought he was mad at you. You two crazy kids should work it out one of these days. I keep forgetting who’s mad with whom and then I get all confused and-“

“Xander, shut up.”

“Yes ma’m.” Faith punched him in the shoulder when he saluted her. The bell rang before Xander had a chance to punch her back.

“Damn, I really wanted to get you back for that…” Xander muttered to Faith before picking his things up. “Shall I walk you two lovely ladies to class or will you be fine by yourselves?”

“Go, we’re very capable,” Faith emphasised the word ‘capable’, causing the brunette boy to scurry off in search of Willow’s locker for his history homework.

Faith had grown up in a tough neighbourhood in Boston, teaching her basic survival skills and how to punch really really hard. He’d been lucky she was only punching him playfully, or else he’d have had a bruise for at least a week.

“Come on B, you can’t be little miss down-in-the-dumps all day.”

“Who says I can’t?”

“Me.”

“Why have you got the authority?”

“Cos I’m Faith. And you’re B.”

Buffy shook her head and couldn’t help but smile. She was lucky she had friends like Willow, Xander, Oz, Faith and Spike. She looked back up to the sky and regretfully stepped inside the building.

*****

Angel Ferguson was angry. Once again, Kathryn was making him late for school. He’d already been tardy 5 times and it was only the first day of the second week back from summer break.

He honked the horn again. Kathryn stepped outside the door, dressed immaculately in a dress he’d never seen her in before (which wasn’t very uncommon anyway), and in heels that made it impossible for her to hurry down the stone steps quickly enough.

“We’re late, let’s go.” Kathryn told him bluntly, slamming the door closed aggressively. She was in a terrible mood, and she couldn’t find a single aspirin for her headache. She only needed one guess who’s fault that was. Her grumpy self wasn’t a pleasure to be around, nor was her that-time-of-the-month self.

Angel stepped on the gas and wondered how he put up with all this. Sure, he was the most popular guy in school, what with him being the star quarterback and all, and Kathryn was the most popular girl, but that didn’t make her act like any less of a bitch to him than to anyone else. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he thought she was most gorgeous girl he’d ever seen. Maybe. Probably.

Part 2

Finally, school ended for the day at precisely 2:30 and Kathryn carefully walked down the front steps, careful not to ruin her new shoes. There, waiting for her, was Angel standing next to his convertible (which she loved—and Cordy envied). She always wondered how he was always able to get there before her. Maybe it was because she always got distracted by someone trying their luck on asking her out or spreading rumours about so-and-so or maybe because she had trouble walking on the unevenly paved walkway leading from the front doors of the school to the footpath.

She met him with a slow, passionate kiss. She was smiling, for the first time in maybe a week (which didn’t include wicked smirks when she played with people’s heads). All because she had gotten the opportunity to turn down one of the most eligible guys in school after toying with him for, like, a month. These were the things that made life so worth living for her.

"So, where were we going again? You had me a little distracted just then and it completely slipped my mind." Angel smirked and traced an intricate pattern on the bare skin of her upper arm, eliciting a slight shiver, due partly to the cloudy afternoon weather. The sun had disappeared behind a thick gathering of clouds not long before recess and it looked as it were going to rain…in maybe, half an hour.

"My place. You forgot? Monday is the only day I’ll be home alone all afternoon. Mai Lee is having her day off, the parental units working until eightish, one sister at this study thing with her friends and, well, my other sister…who knows… I thought you said you’d come over and we’d have a little...fun?" Kathryn rubbed against him suggestively, a wicked grin on her face and her sharp fingernails sending shivers up his spine as she played with the short hairs on the nape of his neck.

"Since when did you have sisters?" Angel had only been dating her for a week, and they hadn’t talked much about their personal lives. Their social backgrounds were enough for them to get along well.

"Since...well, forever. Younger sisters, especially ones not much younger than you, are the worst. So are we going or not? Cos if we’re just gonna talk all the time, I’m asking someone else for a lift. I mean, plenty of people wouldn’t turn me down." Kathryn stepped away from him in an act of mockery.

"Don’t play with me, I’m not that type of guy." Angel grinned and got into the driver’s seat of his Benz. A immaculately cared for vehicle which he’d gotten for his birthday as a joint present between his parents, grandparents and relatives. After finding out just how many people pitched in, he didn’t feel so special after all, he didn’t let anyone know that tiny detail either, and that suited him just fine.

"Fine. But you better not do the same to me. There’ll be hell to pay for. Then Cordelia would go after you..." Her voice trailed off as he sped down the street, the engine roaring loudly down the busy street.

Buffy sat under a tree watching the car race by, afraid that it would start raining before her mother got there in time to give her a ride to the gallery, where she worked on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons for "work experience". More like "get away from über-bitch experience"... Another one of Kathryn’s guys...he probably wouldn’t last as long as any of the other ones, unless he was as good-looking as Richard Price. But he’d only lasted a month. Buffy wondered how Kathryn would ever find a guy to just settle with for more than a month if she always kept standards like that.

**I give the new guy one and a half weeks. Two and a half if he’s hot.**

"Hey Buffy!" Willow was walking with her boyfriend (again), smiling her bright Willow smile, books in hand as well as a small box of floppy disks.

"Will, Oz. Where are you two headed?"

"Database work at Willow’s," Oz said abruptly, shrugging nonchalantly when Buffy raised an eyebrow at them in question.

"More like smooch work at Willow’s. I doubt any work will come out of this particular...situation." Buffy waggled both her eyebrows at Willow, and she flushed a bright pink colour. It gets Willow every time when Buffy talks about her and Oz kissing. It’s like she’s still in seventh grade, the way she acts about not-so-intimate things like a little lip action.

"Stop that Buffy! We’re doing this...for Miss Calendar. So stop doing that with your eyebrows! It’s...very, well, it’s very strange. To have to talk to you while you’re moving your eyebrows like that. So...stop it!" Willow shifted from foot to foot nervously while she spoke, not an uncommon action for Willow, but is enough for Buffy to stop and push them in the right direction.

"Go, I’ll be fine. See? Look, there’s my mom now." Buffy picked up her things and walked with them until they had to part in different directions. "Bye, now don’t go doing anything you’ll regret, okay?"

Willow blushed even brighter than before, but didn’t have a chance to get back at her. Willow shook her head and smiled, happy in the fact that it was going well enough between herself and Oz for Buffy to make a comment like that.

"We should go now. It looks kinda rainy." Oz told her, glancing cautiously at the grey sky, which was turning darker every minute.

"Sure." Smiling brightly at her boyfriend. Sure, she had a good relationship, but her friend didn’t. She had a strong belief that it was a best friend’s job to help in that department. Course, that didn’t work out too well when she and Xander were best buds. It had been her favourite Barbie too...and he cut all her hair off.

Oh well, the past was the past and the future is the future.

*****

"Mom, I don’t think this one goes well with the ones next to it. It should go...over there, between the two paintings by Carter since the lighting is much better and the colours go much better." Buffy pointed at the painting down the other end of one of the gallery’s showcase halls. The painting if front of her really did look out of place. The lighting just wasn’t bright enough to highlight all the wonderful use of colour, whereas the spot she had suggested had the advantage of natural light during the day.

"I know. I put it up and it just looked...wrong. I just couldn’t decide where to put it. I’ll get Trey to move it first thing tomorrow morning. He’s just so handy with the spirit level. That way I know that it-"

"Mom, I know what a spirit level is. I have two essays to write, half a dozen little homework tasks and one science assignment to do so we really should leave before I turn 18."

"Okay, okay. We’re going." Joyce picked up her purse and opened the front door for her daughter to go through and locked it behind them.

*****

Kathryn was kissing Angel furiously, her hair mussed and his shirt undone. They’d been stuck in a traffic jam on the way back and had only ended up with half an hour alone with Angel since Cordelia had decided to drop by to ask her how she should do her hair for tonight’s date. Of course, knowing Cordelia, it’d taken at least an hour to get her sorted out. What did Cordelia think she was? An average Californian valley girl? As if she could care less what Cordy’s hair looked for her date with Daniel McIntosh, a college guy she’d met at the mall on Saturday.

The afternoon was not going to plan…

And to top it all off, the storm had taken out the power, forcing them to have to search through the whole house for candles and when they had, the power was back on again. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon with the most fuck-worthy guy on this side of Pacific; in her opinion.

Kathryn nearly missed the sound of her mother’s car pulling into the driveway. She checked the watch on her nightstand and broke physical contact with her boyfriend.

"Oh shit. She’s early." Kathryn jumped right into action, zipping her dress up, fixing her hair and busying herself with cleaning the room up as if to show that she was still "innocent little Kathy". Yeah, and shadows are yellow.

Angel dressed quickly and hurried out the back door, careful to lock it from the inside before closing it. By the time he got out and halfway around the side of the large house, the car had been parked and everyone had already gone inside. Damn, he wanted to see what they looked like, whether or not they were as hot as his regularly ill-intentioned girlfriend. It didn’t really matter that she had been known as the bitchiest of the whole lot of them, but at least it shows some sort of character. As long as he stayed as far away as possible to the idea of breaking it with her before she does to him, he’d still be in possession of his head.

Part 3

Two weeks later, Kathryn had been grounded for breaking her curfew one night when she’d gone out to the Bronze to break a few hearts and ease up her frustrations over this "one maths problem" she couldn’t work out (otherwise known as partying with bad excuse). Of course, she lost track of the time and had to result to sneaking in. She was caught in the act by both parents and grounded for a month. A slight blemish to her otherwise untarnished innocent act. Nothing Benny can’t fix.

Benny, the guy on the corner of Sutherland and Harper every Tuesday at 9, was a tough businessman, but it wasn’t as if you could get the same quality any where in the vicinity. He always seemed to have a flowing stock of the stuff; even Kathryn knew that she wouldn’t be able to rely on anyone else for her supply. She was completely addicted, ever since that wild party in the summer break, and she just couldn’t stop going back to Benny. Not too bad a guy either.

Kathryn looked out the window and saw her sisters outside, sunbaking by the pool, with that nasty cat sleeping in the tree. It was no secret that she and Mr Gordo couldn’t stand each other. Kathryn squinted her eyes and could just make out the shape of Mr Gordo slinking down the tree into Buffy’s lap. **What is wrong with that cat?**

Kathryn unscrewed the top of her cross and lifted the small spoon to her nostril, pressing the other down firmly, and snorted the powder up. Nice and calming. She screwed that top back on and let the cross dangle from her hand, the jewels twinkling in the sunlight. She’d gotten it from “a friend” of Benny’s for a very good deal. She mostly used it to trick her parents, but it came in handy whenever her nerves needed calming or when she felt she needed another fix...basically, it was a multipurpose little thing. Pretty too. Kathryn was sure that both Buffy and Cordelia had their suspicions on the real purpose of the little contraption, just not yet and hopefully never.

Kathryn snatched a tissue from the box on her desk and dabbed lightly at her nose. She threw the barely-used tissue into the wastepaper basket and stormed out of her room.

She opened the door to Buffy’s room, disgusted at the decoration of the walls and the general style of the room. Pictures of her friends all over the place, beaded cushions, a fluffy tissue box cover the list of things she hated about it was endless. It just seemed...so girly to her.

She pulled open the top desk drawer and pulled out Buffy’s leather bound diary, only to discover that there was a small lock, which she had never even noticed before. She just knew Buffy was up to something, and since she wrote in her diary constantly, Kathryn figured she’d be able to find out from the small book in her hands. Maybe even find out if she knew about her coke problem. She was fuming, and was clenching her fist around the delicate chain that held her cross, not successfully breaking it, but hurting her hand just enough to make herself stop clenching as hard.

"What are you doing in here?" Kathryn turned around to meet the angry eyes of her blonde twin. Mr Gordo was at her feet, flicking his tail like the waggling finger of one of those mean old boarding school matrons when they catch one of their charges misbehaving. Kathryn had never been to boarding school, but that was what she’d imagined they would be like with grey hair and a lot of purple, maroon and grey in their wardrobes.

"Nothing," Kathryn glared back at her angry sister and threw the diary back into the drawer it came from and strode silently from the room. Buffy moved aside for her bitch of a sister to leave, smiling slightly at the hissing noise Mr Gordo made when Kathryn passed him. The day Mr Gordo actually lashed out at Kathryn would a joyous day, but for now, he was still a little scared of the raven-haired Summers twin. Damn...

*****

Buffy spotted Spike, who was apparently moping or thinking deeply or something along those lines, sitting on the edge of the fountain in the courtyard and staring at the backs of his hands (or maybe even the ground or his pants or anything in that general downward direction). His back was hunched and his hair looked as if he’d forgotten to comb it when he woke up this morning.

"Hey Spike," Buffy greeted her friend, seating herself next to him, "what’s the what?" Buffy was concerned with Spike as he and Faith had been fighting for over two weeks now. It was surprising to everyone that they still hadn’t broken up yet considering they could be such a good couple one minute and the next they would be within inches of tearing each others throats out. Not literally of course.

"Buffy. You know you’re my bestest friend on the face of the world right?" Spike looked her right in the eye, the sorrow showing clearly in contrast with his tough exterior.

"Yeah, of course. And I thought a poetic person like you knew that ‘bestest’ is not a real word. Guess I was mistaken."

"What other word fits?"

"Well now you’re just getting off track. What is it now? Faith troubles?"

"How did you know?" Spike asked sarcastically. He ran his hand through his and hair and looked up at yet another flawlessly blue sky. Maybe if he wished hard enough it’d start raining again, or if he did the rain (however crazy it’d look), just so he’d get weather to match his mood.

"I’m Buffy; I know stuff. Tell me about it."

"Faith, she said I wasn’t man enough for her and she dumped me. Right in the middle of the street. Almost had me run over too. That damn bitch almost had me killed. Bloody hell."

"Has anything that has come out of her mouth ever been all the truthful? Especially to a guy?"

"Yeah, I guess not..." Spike mumbled. After a second, he seemed to have had some sort of a realisation. "I’m unattached now...cool. Do you think you could fix me up with your sister?"

"You know we’re not all that close, so don’t get your hopes up."

"Damn. Is my hair messed up? She’s in my first period class and I don’t want to look a ruffian off the streets." Spike set to work at smoothing out his mussed hair, using the fountain as a mirror-like reflective surface.

"Not anymore. Should’ve seen what it looked like earlier, wow..."

"Oh shut up. You don’t ever have a bad hair day, what are you complaining about?"

"Are you kidding? You have no idea how much goes into resolving bad hair days..."

*****

Spike knocked twice on the Summers’ front door. He knew for a fact that it wouldn’t be Kathryn answering the door, but Mai Lee made him uncomfortable, especially when he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

To his relief, Buffy answered the door, a large bowl in her hands. "Hi Spike. Crushin’ on my sister again?" It was no secret to the group that Spike had a crush on both the Summers twins, especially the dark haired one.

"What? No, of course not...I’m here to...umm…ask about the homework in...umm..." Spike couldn’t think of a single class he had with her, except history, but luckily, they didn’t have any homework.

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Why don’t you come in? You’re letting in the insects. You’re just in time for a movie and popcorn. Kathryn’s upstairs, so please stop looking as if your pants are too tight. It’s unnerving."

"Don’t worry. I like my women dark. Don’t need to feel uncomfortable around me either." Spike stepped through the door and saw Mai Lee cleaning the mirror in the front entryway. She was smiling at him strangely again. As if she was in some sort of conspiracy and was forced to smile at everyone. "Mai Lee." Spike nodded his head curtly to her and continued into the house, to the family room.

"Here’s the popcorn, nice and hot, straight from the microwave. Make yourself comfortable; it isn’t as if you’re going to be attacked by Mr Gordo again, he’s asleep up in my room, out of harm’s way. Remember, you just had the smell of hot dog on your hands. He goes crazy over hot dogs, I told you and you-"

"Yeah, yeah. I remember. Ooh, ‘There’s Something About Mary’. I’ve been meaning to see this." He sat down on the nearest sofa, intent on actually watching the movie instead of ‘turning things over’ in his mind. “Extra butter, extra salt?"

"Can’t have it any other way."

Spike grabbed a large handful and glued his eyes to the screen. He could hardly even taste the extra salt and butter he was so engrossed in his thoughts. Why was he always so unlucky in love? ...Dru, Faith, and the 3-year-crush on Kathryn...what a history...

*****

"What’s blondie doing here?" Spike’s head snapped to the direction in which Kathryn’s voice came. She was standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips, cross clasped tightly in her hands and yet another expensive outfit showing off her womanly figure.

"I was just leaving," Spike gave Buffy a Look to tell her he didn't want to stay for the probable bitchfest and left the house without so much as a glance at Kathryn.

"I swear, why did you decide to hang with the likes of such losers? It makes me ashamed to be your sister; worse, twins." Kathryn sniped like it was a daily routine to insult her sister; which it really was, you could say. She spun on her heel and continued down the hallway to the bar to get something to calm her nerves.

"Hey hey, at least I have real friends," Buffy fought back.

"Are you saying I don’t?"

"Of course. Which page are you on? That’s exactly what I said."

"Excuse me?"

"Woah, there’s a lot of tension in this hallway." Dawn stepped between her sisters, in an attempt to break up the catfight that was bound to have occurred had no one stopped them.

"Thanks for that Dawnie. My temper just ran away from me," Buffy said. She glared past Dawn’s head at her twin one last time and hurried back to her room to write in her diary again. It would make an interesting entry indeed.

Part 4

"Go mo Mai Lee," Buffy received the letter politely and ripped it open impatiently. She glanced down at the thin slip of paper enclosed within.

"Fuck. What now? Library fines?" she muttered under her breath, shoving the slip of paper back into its envelope.

She grabbed her bag off the counter and hurried to the door, grabbing a bagel from the basket of rolls on the dining table on the way. "Bye mom, dad."

"Bye hun," Joyce took another bite out of her piece of toast and continued to read her newspaper. Joyce was only just beginning to notice the big change in her daughters. Kathryn, who was always so sweet and innocent, was now becoming more troublesome; Buffy, who was always in her room or out with friends, was now becoming more responsible. Dawnie however...well they’re her adolescent years, she’ll be fine... **Yeah, just fine. With Buffy’s influence, she’ll hopefully be more responsible. Especially since she started helping me out at the gallery on a few afternoons. It’s good experience for her.**

"Morning." Kathryn snapped, reaching over the table for a slice of the baguette Mai Lee had been asked to buy each morning, just for her. She knew that if she greet them on the one day her parents were actually still in the house at breakfast time, her mother would reprimand her for her bad manners. **Fuck manners. Who gives a shit about manners these days...**

"Don’t snap at your mother," Hank Summers told her patiently, sipping slowly from his cup of steaming hot espresso.

"Morning," Kathryn said again, with exaggerated politeness and a nice bright smile that went unnoticed anyway.

"That’s better," Hank wasn’t even paying attention to his eldest daughter (by 20 minutes), his eyes were transfixed on the document he received in the fax early that morning as he still had more than half of it left to finish going over.

Kathryn sighed and walked into the kitchen to have a glass of water—8 glasses a day keeps skin healthy and glowing. She gulped it down and thrust the glass into Mai Lee’s hands and stormed out of the kitchen, chewing angrily on her baguette slice.

"Excuse me madam, but I think Miss Kathryn is in bad temper," Mai Lee spoke softly and carefully to Joyce.

"Isn’t she always lately? I just hope she doesn’t throw a tantrum-"

There was a loud smash of a vase and everyone in the dining room winced.

"I think she already have bad tantrum," Mai Lee said before hurrying to inspect the damage.

A few seconds, a few more smashes and loud shouts later, Joyce was slightly amused to see Mai Lee running back into the safety of the dining room. "Miss Kathryn is having very bad tantrum. One mirror, two vases." She held up her fingers to show the number and accented her statement with a nod.

Joyce shook her head and threw her napkin onto the table, walking out of the room to see what on earth was happening. She found not only the one mirror and two vases that Mai Lee mentioned, but two collector’s edition porcelain plates she and Hank had received as a wedding present from her brother, a clock and a dent in the wall which looked as if a shoe was thrown at it. There was no Kathryn to be found.

Looking out the window, she saw the taillights of a convertible leaving the curb. Joyce sighed again and began picking up the pieces of her porcelain plates.

*****

"Giles, what’s this?" Buffy held up the envelope to show the librarian who’d become like a second father to her. In actual fact, he was her uncle—on her mother’s side. When she thought more about it, it just seemed gross that she considered her mother’s brother to be her father figure. Incest much.

"What?" Rupert Giles took the thin slip from inside the envelope out to inspect it, squinting slightly at the small print.

"Fines. Total—twelve dollars. It says it right there, twelve dollars. Twelve dollars! I bet the book wasn’t even worth that much... Plus, I returned them...eventually."

"I didn’t send this. Must’ve been that replacement for when I was absent on yesterday and on Monday. I was in all weekend with a terrible cold." Giles glanced in puzzlement at the blue screen in front of him. The computer science teacher had taught him how to use it, but he’d had so much trouble paying attention that he missed the whole thing.

"Poor Uncie Rupie," Buffy said in a childish voice, but returned it to normal afterwards. "You okay?"

"Yes, thank you. Well, umm, I’ll get this sorted out with the system and...ah, you should get to class," Giles rubbed his forehead and pulled open the drawer under the computer in search of the information booklet the teacher had given him. Just then, the bell rang loudly and the sound of people rushing to class soon followed.

"Knew I could count on ya. Ciao!" Buffy hurried out the library’s doors, just in time to smash into a large, averagely dressed male.

Buffy bit her lip. She didn’t want to be tardy for her lesson with Mrs Peterson; she’s always strict about lateness in the first few weeks of the term. Buffy picked up her books and accepted the other two she’d dropped from the stranger. She’d never seen him around before, even from glancing briefly at him when she had to flick the mass of hair off her face, she could tell he was both new AND popular. **Probably drives a fast car too. I bet my sister’s had a go with him already.**

"I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going…" Buffy kept her eyes to the ground; looking for anything else she might’ve missed.

"Hi, I’m Angel. You’ve probably heard of me." Angel held out his hand for her to shake.

"I’m sorry, I’m late for Mrs Peterson’s class," Buffy picked up her keys from the ground, "I have to go." She shook his hand and smiled quickly, "I’m Buffy," she introduced hurriedly and dashed off down the hallway.

She almost forgot about the fact that it was Angel Ferguson she had bumped into. As in Angel Ferguson: newly transferred star quarterback, hottest guy to step through SHS’s doors.

**Was it just me or did that girl look exactly like Kathryn? Except with blonde hair. I must be hallucinating...Kathryn wouldn’t go blonde, nor would she act like that and call herself "Buffy"…**

Angel shook his head to try to see if it may’ve been his head playing with him again. **I need more sleep...** "Ferguson? What are you doing standing in the middle of the hall like a fool?" the football coach barked. They had an emergency practice for the game they were to have with the neighbouring city’s team from Oxnard High. Not surprisingly, the Oxnard team was called the Oxnard Oxen. Angel had heard from only his first day at the school, that Oxnard were their rivals and that the girls who attended were the "worst type of tramp still being accepted" as Cordelia had put it during the discussion held at lunch that day. Speaking of Cordelia, just the mention of him being the new star quarterback for Sunnydale had here throwing herself at him. The display was just so...disturbing, he hadn’t looked twice at her. Truth was, Angel had a thing for blondes, though since he met Kathryn, he decided to have a go at dating a brunette. But now...

"Sorry coach, I thought I just had a hallucination," Angel said dreamily, not even looking at the coach.

"Well then snap out of it and get your ass in the locker room now before I kick it in there, Ferguson!"

"Sure coach. I’ll be right there."

*****

Angel couldn’t think of anyone except the blonde who’d bumped into him all through his classes for the rest of the day. Maybe he was imagining things again…the side effects of dating Darla for three months. He shook it off and tried to concentrate on the English lesson.

He was happy to hear the bell ring, it meant that he’d see Kathryn again and be able to get his mind off "Buffy"—if her mood was better than in the morning, that is. **If I say someone doesn’t exist, they don’t exist. "Buffy" was a figment of my imagination.**

"Cordelia!" Angel called out to the cheerleader. It wasn’t too surprising that she didn’t hesitate to respond to his call.

"Angel. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" she said in voice that made Angel want to throw up. **How many hints does she need before she actually gets the picture?**

"Um, Kathryn’s party. How are the plans coming along?"

"Champagne, dips, finger food, cake and presents. Music is not my domain. Ask Harmony, she’ll tell you all about it." Cordelia smiled brightly and continued in her original direction toward her locker.

Angel groaned. Harmony was an annoying little dimwit who only got so far socially because she was a good conversationalist—when you wanted to talk about rumours and gossip. Angel was no gossip queen and would not nor had reason to risk his sanity by talking to the girl. **Who cares about the music? We’ll probably end up using the stuff they have at the Summers’ anyway. It didn’t make sense to bring any when there was already such a large collection on hand. Boy, they have good taste...**

Angel ran after Cordelia, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Cordelia. Does Kathryn have, by any chance, a sister who looks almost exactly the same?"

"You didn’t know?"

"Know what?"

"Kathryn’s got a twin. I assumed you knew." Cordelia frowned, wondering why Kathryn would keep the fact from him of all people.

"A twin? How come she never told me?"

"She’s got this whole issue about her. I generally don’t pay attention to her when she talks about her. Too taxing."

"Cordelia, what’s her twin’s name?"

"Why? You prefer blondes all of a sudden? Cos I can tell you that Kathryn’s a 100% natural blonde."

"She is?"

"Of course. Her hair is just *so* unnaturally dark."

"Aren’t you both the same colour?"

"No way!"

"Look, Cordelia, could you please tell what her twin’s name is?" Angel asked more insistently.

"Her name is Buffy, okay?" Cordelia shook her head. **Why is he interested in everyone except me? Cos I’m not blonde?** "God, what’s your trauma?" Cordelia made a face and proceeded to unlock her locker. **If he’s so picky, then he isn’t worth my time.**

Angel recoiled slightly, letting the information sink in. **So now I know.** "Thanks Cordy," Angel said dazedly, "it clears a few things up for me."

"You’re welcome," Cordelia replied, letting her defences down briefly, appreciating his gentlemanly politeness, not to mention his incredibly good looks when she turned to face him again. "The party starts at 12, don’t be late. Don’t forget to bring a plate of finger food. Everyone has to. Just don’t bring chips ok? Cos a dozen other people will. And chips are really high in fat."

"Sure," Angel smiled slightly. It was enough to make Cordelia change her mind again. **Too cute to ignore…I swear, I’ll have him...eventually.** Angel couldn’t help smiling at how easy it was to find out stuff around here. He was glad Cordelia hadn’t given a second thought to his motives.

For now though, being with Kathryn was enough. **When we split, Buffy will be the first person I want to ask out. I hope Kathryn doesn’t mind...**

Part 5

Kathryn spotted Cordelia talking to her boyfriend in the hallway. They seemed friendly, yet sour to one another at the same time. It didn’t upset her as much as she thought it would, which she found...strange. Kathryn had never dated anyone who’d cheated on her...yet. **And hopefully never, too.**

"Kathryn!" Cordelia called out to the brunette. Although she really didn’t like Cordelia that much, no one else around these parts had as much taste as she preferred. Really, no one in this wretched town could separate Dior from Vuitton, even if the monogram was printed all over it, the exceptions being Cordelia and that strange Anya girl whom Kathryn sometimes saw in the hallways.

"What’s wrong now?" she asked impatiently. "And please don’t do that again. I don’t appreciate being called after like a dog." She had more to do than just hanging around in the hallways talking. Mrs La Croix had asked her to come to the faculty staffroom for "a word". Probably more like a lecture.

"I was talking to Angel and he was asking about Buffy. And please don’t talk to me that way either. I don’t appreciate being treated like your serving girl," Cordelia said, as she threw the last of her books into her locker.

"Sure, whatever. Why the hell was he asking about Buffy? What did he ask?"

"Calm down already. I swear, sometimes I wonder why you get all paranoid. You *always* get the guy. Me? I’m poor lonely Cordy, overshadowed by the mighty-"

"Cordelia, just tell me."

"Why didn’t you ever tell him you had a twin? I think he feels betrayed..." Cordelia had put on fake puppy dog eyes and matching pout and struggled not to laugh at Kathryn’s reaction.

"Stop it Cordelia," Kathryn hit her friend playfully on the arm. "What else did he ask?"

"Just her name, and well, that’s about it. Did you know he prefers blondes?" Cordelia slammed her locker closed and turned to face the momentarily distressed brunette.

"What! You mean..."

"Yeah, I mean." Cordelia turned to face Kathryn, all in seriousness. "When you two are over, he might want to go out with your sister."

"Who wants to date your sister?" Harmony asked loudly, butting abruptly into the conversation.

"No one. Go away, Harmony," Cordelia excused the gaping blonde without so much as a glance.

"Fine, I don’t want to know anyway." Harmony stuck her nose in the air and stalked away from the scene, followers in tow. The gossip queen would probably have it running in the rumour mill by the next morning.

Kathryn grumbled, exasperated beyond help. She stomped her foot angrily and snarled at no one in particular. "The little bitch..."

"Harmony or your sister?" Cordelia raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow in question. It amused her to see Kathryn manipulate men and get frustrated by them at the same time. It was like...an oxymoron.

"Both. Now, if you don’t mind, my fucking French teacher wants to lecture me about my fucking homework. See you later." Kathryn smiled sarcastically (teeth and all) and brushed past Cordelia, headed towards the Languages faculty staffroom.

"Sure. Good luck."

"Well appreciated," Kathryn shouted back from halfway down the hallway.

*****

"Miss Summers, it seems as if your homework has been incomplete for the past few days, I need to have a word with you on that. It seems as if you don’t exhibit the enthusiasm most have for learning foreign languages. After all, you DID choose the subject yourself," Mrs La Croix’s thick French accent made it hard for Kathryn to understand what the woman was talking about, which delayed her reaction by a few moments.

"Well actually-"

"Your parents made you pick it? I don’t care. You come to my class to learn, and I come to my classes to teach. Since there is a sharing of this responsibility of this commitment, I expect co-operation. I will not tolerate students who do not complete their homework in time." Mrs La Croix snapped at her student like a crab to its prey, showing no mercy until its task is complete and its stomach fed.

"Mrs La Croix, I’m trying as hard as I can, but I just don’t understand enough of the language to complete the homework. I only started the course this year, and it seems I’m way behind in everything. It’s been at least one or two years since I last did French." Kathryn spoke sincerely, not allowing her temper to get the better of her. The façade she tried to present for herself always slipped whenever her temper got the best of her. Like Katherina Minola from Taming of the Shrew, only less anti-feministic. Seriously, how nice was it to be known as "Katherine the curst" by whole cities of men? Just about as nice as being known as "Kathryn the bitch" by a whole school of students. Although she delighted in the ruin of others, she’d never want to be called a ‘shrew’. Her façade was slipping fast; even her parents had begun to notice.

"Students who are behind must catch up. It is through no fault of mine that you don’t concentrate in my class."

"I’m very sorry Mrs La Croix, I’ll try, I will," Kathryn pleaded with her French teacher, exercising her skills in manipulation to her advantage.

"Be sure or be even sorrier. You’re dismissed," Mrs La Croix closed the door in Kathryn’s face.

Kathryn jumped back, just before it closed, ensuring the safety of her nose. She glared at the annoyingly green staffroom door, fuming at the audacity in the strange woman they called a French teacher. "Fucking moron. Why don’t we ever get any good teachers in this fucking dungeon...?" she muttered under her breath, determined to have a nice chat with the counsellor to get her subject changed. "Call me Kathryn Merteuil, but I think she’d be even more suited to the name than me."

*****

"Hey Giles. Mind if we crash?" Xander asked the dumbfounded Brit while seating himself in one of the chairs and rested his feet on the spotless oak table.

"Xander, please get your feet off the table. It was cleaned just this morning with those special detergents to make it all nice and shiny. No need to make it any more soiled as it is," Giles took his glasses off, cleaning them with the handkerchief in his vest’s breast pocket.

"Sorry Giles, but it was just too hot and muggy outside that we couldn’t resist paying you a visit," Willow smiled and took a seat beside Xander, making it a point to shove Xander’s feet off the table to get through.

"Nonsense. It’s a nice, sunny, Californian day. You should spend it outside," Giles forced a grin, knowing that they’d stay, ignoring whatever he might say or do.

"Come on Giles. Lighten up. You know you can’t fool us." Buffy patted his back and took a seat on the edge of the table and swung her legs like a young child.

"Not even if I said that some nasty demon would pop out from under the place you’re sitting and eat anyone in his path?"

"Nup. Now if you said that there was one of those food-sampling festivals down at the mall, you might get me outta here. Stress on ‘might’. They had some really good stuff down there last time. Great, now I’m hungry..."

"Poor Xander. Nothing to eat since the six Twinkies he had this morning because the cafeteria’s having meatloaf day. Boohoo." Buffy made a sad face, with the sorrowful eyes and pouted lower lip and a slight tilt of the head. The perfect addition would be two cute pigtails on either side of her head, with pink bows on tied to cover the elastics, but unfortunately, it just didn’t go with the "mature" look that she wanted to project towards her parents.

"Hey! It’s not my fault it’s meatloaf day! I don’t wanna die of food poisoning, thank you *very* much." Xander protested. You never knew what kinds of things they put in the meatloaf or even if it was made of meat at all. The way it tasted didn’t give any clues either. Not that anyone would ever want to eat more than one bite of it anyway. Unless you somehow possessed no properly working tastebuds or were very, very, very starved.

Just then, Faith walked into the room, carrying a few books in one hand and her other hand in her pocket. "Figured you guys would be in here," she said and spotted the librarian behind the counter obviously looking for something amongst the shelves she was sure was under there and since she’d never actually been behind (or ever wanted to) she guessed she’d never find out. "Hey G-Man. Lookin’ for somethin’?"

"I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me that again. I had enough trouble weening Xander off it," Giles’ voice was muffled from below the counter. "Aha! Here it is."

"What is it?"

"The instructions for using the new software for the library. I was hoping maybe Willow could teach me how to use it. The computer science teacher tried to teach me, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, pay attention." Giles pulled out a small stack of paper, stapled twice on the left edge so that it would open like a book; specially made different to suit Giles.

"Ooh, I think someone has the hots for Miss Calendar," Willow teased, flipping through the booklet briefly. Giles hadn’t heard the comment, his concentration focused entirely upon on the computer screen in front of him. "Oh, this is easy. I could teach you this in 10 minutes. Easy as pie."

"Easy as pie? How is pie easy? I tried making those microwavable ones, but it got kinda burnt," his expression turned sheepish as everyone turned their heads toward the boy, disbelieving what he’d just said. Xander Harris, the food lover of the millennium, can’t microwave a pie properly? That’s harder than burning water.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Buffy stated matter-of-factly.

"Hey, not everyone has a Mai Lee to microwave it for them! Have I ever mentioned how much I love Mai Lee’s cooking?"

"Yes," everyone said in unison, which Xander reacted to in rage. "Hey!"

"Calm down, Xand. I was just joking. And actually, I *do* microwave my own pies but, well, I just don’t eat them anymore. They might be almost as worse as the meatloaf."

"Sure. The discussion was making me too hungry for my own good anyway." Xander shifted in his seat until the sudden thought popped into his head. He’d almost forgotten it completely too... "Hey Buffster! Whatcha planning for your birthday this year? Cake? There’s gotta be cake."

"Stop thinking with your stomach Xander," Faith said, and sat down in the chair next to him where Willow had been sitting before. Willow was meanwhile busying herself teaching the very lost-looking Giles how to use the program that the school had newly purchased.

"I dunno. I heard that they’re throwing a big party for Kathryn at our house, so I think I might stick around. Food, drinks, music, bitches and players of Sunnydale High. Sounds like a party to me."

"Ooh, can we crash?"

"Willow, it’s *my* house. Course you can." Buffy smiled when she saw Willow grin at the prospect. Willow never liked any of the popular people Kathryn was friends with, but she’d always been curious as to what it was like in the ‘It’ crowd. Sure, curiosity killed the cat, but Willow had given up believing in sayings that lacked any sort of logical origin a long time ago. Even if the curiosity part entailed throwing herself to the sharks.

"Oh yeah. I wonder if Oz will wanna come..."

"Speaking of the incredibly tacit guy himself, where is Oz today? You two have been joined at the hip for the past month or so. It seems...odd," Xander said.

"He’s helping the drama club with the PA system in the hall. They have a meeting or something in a few days and the wiring is everywhere. A whole big mess that’ll take at least a day to fix since they have to-"

"Okay, one sentence answers are good. You don’t have to explain it to me step-by-step."

"Speaking of boyfriends, what’s up with you Spike?" Buffy turned to look at Faith, who was busily staring at her hands in guilt.

"Don’t ask." Faith bit out sharply, her actions changing from staring at her hands to wringing them. She seemed to be on edge, like an extreme case of paranoia.

"Sure. Forget I mentioned it," Buffy held up her palms in defence. "Anyway, do you guys know Angel Ferguson? The new quarterback? I bumped into him today."

"Really? Any sparks?" Willow asked enthusiastically. She’d finally gotten Giles to understand how to use the program and was happy about both Giles’ new skill and Buffy finally meeting a guy.

"Willow! I only met him for like 3 seconds and then I had to run cos I had Mrs Peterson next. But as far as looks go, he’s not a bad choice for a quarterback." Buffy grinned happily at the memory. Lost in her la-la land of fantasy, Buffy didn’t hear Faith until she said her name for the fourth time.

"Buffy!"

"What?"

"Isn’t he dating Kathryn?"

"He is?"

"You didn’t know? They hit it off the first day he was here. He rejected Cordelia, cos from what I heard, she was throwing herself all over him. But yeah, Kathryn and Angel are an item."

"He rejected Cordelia? There’s three words you don’t hear in the one sentence very often. That’s... interesting..." Willow saw the deflated look on her best friend’s face. In all the time she and Buffy had been friends, Buffy had had a total of two boyfriends. Willow frowned. **Am I a bad friend? Would raising the count to a grand total of three make her happier? She seems more...depressed lately.** "Very interesting."

Part 6

"Buffy, what’s wrong? And don’t give me a ‘nothing’ or anything like that cos I know you and something’s wrong. You’ve got something-face." Willow was concerned with her friend’s constant quietness and lack of the usual Buffy-ness that made her "Buffy Summers" instead of "inanimate object." They were sitting on a bench under a tree, waiting for Mrs. Summers to arrive as they were all going to help out for the grand opening of Joyce’s newly discovered talents which was to commence in a week’s time.

"No I don’t." Buffy tucked her hair behind her ears and turned to face Willow. "See? No something-face."

"Uh-uh. That’s a something face. Hey Xander, is it or is it not a something-face?" Willow tugged on Xander’s arm and looked at him in a way that asked him to agree with her, while discreetly hiding her strange facial expressions from the friend in question.

"Well, duh. The word ‘something’ is written in nice neat red marker across your forehead," Xander replied, using hand gestures to demonstrate the imagery further. He turned to face Willow, making his own strange facial expressions. He’d only arrived just then and didn’t have a single clue what they were talking about.

"Gee, it must be..." the sight of Angel standing next to his Mercedes kissing her sister distracted Buffy, her breath and the rest of her sentence was caught in her throat, "very attractive."

Willow snapped her out of it by shouting in Buffy’s ear, effectively gaining her attention. Buffy had been spacing out more often lately and it was beginning to really annoy her friends, especially Willow.

"What?" Buffy closed her eyes briefly and held her head in her hands, running her hands through her hair in the process. She looked Willow in the eyes and blinked away the small pangs of tears forming at the corners of her eyes. Willow saw the way her eyes were sparkling with tears and her softened in surprise. She never knew how deep Buffy’s crush went... **Well now I do, don’t I? And I had to learn the hard way...**

Willow led her friend away from the others (Spike and Faith had arrived separately and were now arguing madly with Xander as their referee and part of the school as their audience) and rested her hands on Buffy’s shoulders.

"You like him that much?" Willow knew the answer already, but she needed to know for sure before she royally stuffed anything up.

Buffy nodded, biting on her lip and a single glistening tear breaking free to run rampant upon her cheek. "I don’t even know why I like him. I’ve met him once and already I’ve fallen head over heels for him." Buffy smiled at her friend, as if she expected Willow to laugh right in her face. She wiped the tear off her cheek with her hand and shrugged shyly. "You must think I’m crazy or something. It’s okay. I always thought there was something wrong with me. A screw loose in that mechanical brain o’ mine." Buffy used her index finger and thumb to imitate a gun shooting into her temple.

"Buffy, don’t do that." Willow gently removed Buffy’s hand from its position and patted it in reassurance. After all, wasn’t that what friends were for? "I don’t think you’re crazy. I sorta even know what you mean, and it isn’t crazy to feel this way. Maybe it’s even love at first sight." Willow grinned at the prospect. She’d always been a firm believer in true love, love at first sight and destiny—well, those things in general—but she’d never expected to ever encounter it in her lifetime. Like déjà vu.

"I don’t believe in love at first sight, Will." Buffy closed her eyes, squeezing the tears from her eyes, letting them fall freely from her eyes. She pulled away from Willow and started walking toward her mother’s car waiting car, wiping the tears from her face along the way.

"Buffy!" Willow chased after her, carefully dodging the still-bickering Spike and Faith. Willow grabbed Buffy’s arm and spun her around. "It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe in it. It just...happens. Sometimes fate just needs a little push in the right direction." Willow smiled and Buffy couldn’t but let her mouth curve into a slight smile.

Buffy enveloped the red head into a quick hug and allowed her smile to turn into a grin. "Okay. I trust you."

Willow pulled back and turned to see Spike and Faith kissing. **I guess they got that worked out...for now. I wonder how long until the next argument...$10 on 1 week and 3 days.**

"Come on guys! Mrs. Summers is waiting for us!" She picked up her bag from the ground and slung it over her shoulder.

"So where’s Oz?" Buffy asked, picking up her own bag up from next to Willow’s. She seemed to be back to her usual bright, happy Buffy-ness, no longer the mopey, broody Buffy-not.

"Oh, he’ll drop by later to help. He has that Dingoes rehearsal for tomorrow’s gig."

"Ever wondered how they came up with that name?"

"One too many times, Buffy, one too many. I think it had something to do with this time Devon’s family went on holiday to Australia and his baby brother almost got attacked by one of the dingoes at one of those free-range zoo things."

"Really? That’s...unique."

"I heard it from one of their groupies, so I don’t think it’s true."

"Pity."

*****

Joyce placed the last flower into the vase and stepped back to look at the arrangement. ‘Just a nice, normal vase of flowers to spruce up the entryway a little,’ she’d said when she thought of it.

"I think we’re done now." She gazed at the walls surrounding her and found herself surprised that they had done the job so quickly. All the lights were shining in the right direction, all the frames had been hung and checked with a spirit level and all the items on display had been tagged and catalogued. There was still a little bit left to do, but it was just good to have the entire display up and running a whole week ahead.

"Now, how should I repay you all for helping? And don’t give me all that crap about it being a favour or any of that other stuff. Just name it," Joyce saw Xander’s face light up, "within certain limitations of course."

Xander’s face fell back to normal.

"Really, Mrs. Summers, it’s okay, you don’t have to." Willow closed the lid of the crate in front of her and pushed it into its place in the storage room.

"Don’t be silly, of course I do."

"Stop bickering like little old ladies. I know what you all want, so stop acting as if you don’t want to seem greedy." Buffy zipped up her bag and collected their coats from her mother’s office. "You all want to have some more of Mai Lee’s ab-fab cooking." Buffy stated, very matter-of-factly.

Five heads nodded enthusiastically.

"Right, so there we go. Settled." Buffy handed their coats back and shrugged her own on. It could sometimes get a little chilly at night during spring around these parts.

"Lead the way, Captain America." Xander tilted his head to one side. "Are my jokes getting dumb or what?"

"No comment," Buffy replied, holding the door open for everyone to get through.

"That’d be a ‘damn straight, Xander, you’re jokes are getting dumb and dumber’ right?"

"Just keep in mind that I didn’t say it. You did." Buffy smiled and turned on the security system, locking the door behind herself and her mother.

"Hey, I take offence to that!"

*****

"Mmm, Angel," Kathryn groaned against his kiss, pressing her body against his. She knew she was grounded, but this wasn’t breaking the rules, right? She was at home, Dawn was studying upstairs (the only reason for keeping things from going further—for today), she only had a little bit of homework to complete and Mai Lee was right on task with the cooking of dinner.

Angel’s hand slipped under her shirt, lightly caressing the soft flesh, tongues duelling all the while.

"Kathryn!"

She pulled away immediately at the sound of her mother’s voice.

"Mom! What are you doing here so early?" Kathryn turned her gaze to the half broken clock across the hallway to realise how late it really was. Training her gaze upon the small gathering behind her mother, she spotted Buffy and a few of her loser friends. "And we have company too?"

Kathryn raised an eyebrow at the group standing in the hallway, staring at the both of them. She ran a hand through her hair to straighten it out as it had become, well, messy would be an understatement considering the way it had been messed up during the time they’d spent making out on the couch.

"Care to explain this young lady?" Joyce asked hotly, walking into the room to talk face-to-face with her once most prized daughter.

"I thought that it was pretty obvious, don’t you think?"

"Don’t smart-mouth me, Kathryn. Explanation. Now."

"You’re just trying to make me admit it. Admit that I broke the rules along with the stuff I broke this morning. Fuck it; I don’t care what you think. I was fucking making-out with my fucking boyfriend. Satisfied?"

"Far from it. Now go to your room."

Kathryn turned to face her boyfriend, giving him a slow, passionate kiss to spite her mother before leaving the room. She noticed that her twin were not amongst those staring in the hallway, but dismissed the thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. **Oh yeah, I’m in deep shit now...**

"So, Kathryn’s Boyfriend, do you happen to have a name?" Joyce asked calmly.

"Angel Ferguson. Nice to finally meet you Mrs. Summers," Angel held shook her hand and stayed standing while she sat. The others had gone upstairs to check on Buffy, for what reason, Angel had no clue of. **Buffy. Buffy’s up there. In this house. This very LARGE house.**

"You understand she’ll be punished don’t you Angel?"

"Of course."

"No more convertible, okay? She’ll be walking, like Buffy. And if she doesn’t like that arrangement, then she can take the bus. I just don’t like the idea of Kathryn Summers behind a steering wheel. I’m sure you know what I mean by that." Joyce smiled at the brown-haired young man across the room.

"This won’t happen again, you understand? She is grounded until her and her sister’s birthday and she’ll be coming to my gallery every afternoon to help out. I know this is all very strict, but I have to take the necessary precautions to make sure."

"I understand, Mrs. Summers," Angel picked up his coat from over the back of one of the armchairs and shrugged it on with ease.

"I’m sure you’re a nice young man, but it’s apparent to me that it’s my daughter who is at fault here. You’re welcome to stay for dinner if you want. Mai Lee has made extra anyway. How about it?" Joyce didn’t know why she’d taken such an instant liking to Angel, maybe it was charisma or charm, but she couldn’t help but approve of Kathryn’s taste in men. **He’s kinda good-looking; in a dark and mysterious sort of way.**

"Of course. From what I’ve heard, Mai Lee is quite the experienced cook." Angel took off his coat and was about to place it back where it’d been before when Mrs. Summers took it from his hands and hung it on the hat stand near the front door of the house.

Joyce laughed, "Really? Whatever you heard about her cooking, it’s probably true."

Joyce led him to the dining room, table laden with delicious looking (and probably delicious tasting) foods of many different types.

Shortly after, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Oz, Faith and Spike entered the well lit room, 5 sets of eyes bulging at the sight of all the different dishes.

"I wonder if you can learn how to make this stuff on Yan Can Cook..." Xander mumbled under his breath at the mouth-watering sight of the assorted food Mai Lee had made, ranging from Chinese to a little bit of Western foods (the jacket potatoes looked especially good as they were still steaming, straight from the oven).

Buffy felt uncomfortable in Angel’s presence, but the reminder of what Willow had said that afternoon and just then—in her room—eased her nerves. She even managed to enjoy herself, relishing in the fact that it’d been the first time conversation actually took place at the dinner table in...months.

She even found herself laughing at another of Xander’s lame jokes (the kind you hear from someone who’s heard it from someone else who’s heard it from someone else...and so on and so forth).

The time passed so quickly, they didn’t even notice until Hank arrived home, picking up a container of Mai Lee’s dinner to take to work since the case they were working on was of "utmost importance and undivided attention".

"Bye Will, Oz, Xand," she waved and turned her attention to Spike and Faith who were dawdling with the couple-y-ness.

"Bye you two. Don’t have another fight, ‘kay?"

"Count on it, pet. See you tomorrow." Spike’s arm was wrapped around Faith’s waist, accidentally taking her with him when he turned to head down to the car.

"Seeya, B!" Faith called when Spike stopped briefly for her to say he goodbyes as well. They had plans for tonight and they didn’t want to waste any time on salutations.

"Bye."

The only one left was Angel, who they were all waiting for since he had offered to drive everyone home. He put on his jacket (again) and stepped through the door and turned abruptly to talk to her. "We were never properly introduced."

"Buffy Summers," she stuck her hand out for a handshake.

"Angel Ferguson," he shook her hand and was surprised to find that his skin tingled when his touched hers. It could’ve been the chilly night air, but instincts told him otherwise.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Ferguson."

"Likewise, Miss Summers."

Part 7

A week later, Spike and Faith were still a couple, Oz had met Willow’s parents, Kathryn had had a small argument with Angel about the Homecoming dance and practically nothing changed except for the weather.

Buffy, Willow and Xander were sitting at one of the tables on SHS campus, waiting for school to start for yet another boring Thursday morning. Willow was cramming for a Physics quiz, Xander was sitting on the table playing with his Gameboy and Buffy was sitting on the other side of Willow, watching the world go by.

"So, Buffster, what would you like for your birthday? I know where to get limited edition Lois and Clark action figures if you’re interested," Xander was grinning like a madman. Sometimes he just got too excited over some things...namely comics, Star Wars merchandise, Superman...and food. Willow just looked at him as if he’d grown a potbelly and pronounced himself as Buddha.

"Sorry, Xand, it just won’t go well with the wallpaper," Buffy replied sarcastically. She tilted her head to see that the lovely weather caused there to be only the one cloud hanging overhead. The blueness of the sky was sometimes so blue that she wondered if something was wrong with the sky.

"Gee, we’re awful quiet today," Faith said, approaching the three friends. On her arm was Spike, who looked happier than ever. Even more so than the time he got so pissed at a party that he started seeing naked women in every direction.

Xander turned the game off and sat in a lotus position. "Mmmmm," Xander hummed softly with his eyes closed. "’Tis called meditation, Faith. Calming, quiet and relaxing serenity." He spoke in a funny voice, a mix between his own and a bad imitation of an old Indian man.

"Very funny, Xander. Now stop it, you look like an idiot."

Xander opened one eye to look at the brunette, "Do I?"

"Yep," she replied, pushing him out of the way to make room herself and Spike to sit.

"Hey, hey, watch the physics!" Willow said when her physics book almost got sat on.

"Sorry, Red. Didn’t see it there," Spike shifted and saw Buffy in daydream mode again. "Earth to Buffy, come in Buffy." He waved a hand in front of her face.

"What? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking how much that cloud looks like a jelly donut. I haven’t had one in weeks," Buffy looked at Spike, smiling sheepishly.

"Bloody right, it does look like a sodding donut."

"Great, now I’m hungry...anyone got anything to eat?"

"Xander! Is that all you think about?"

"Actually, no, but I don’t think you’d want to hear about it."

"Xander!"

*****

"Okay, Harmony’s bringing drinks, I’m bringing chips and dips, and everyone else is bringing finger food, got it?" Cordelia asked her entourage, which was answered by a chorus of yeses and nods. "Good. Don’t forget, Sunday, noon. Bring presents. Kathryn’s eighteenth birthday has to be perfect."

Cordelia honestly didn’t like having to organise parties like she were organising a bunch of foot soldiers, but sometimes you had to do what you had to do. Kathryn had been her best friend since junior high and it was important to her that Kathryn has a perfect 18th birthday. No matter what everyone thought, the two brunettes treated each other like friends, even though they were both certified bitches.

So what if they thought more than half of the population of SHS were losers? Was it a crime to have an opinion?

"What about cake?" Harmony asked.

"Duh, Harmony, Angel will take care of that," Cordelia said, right when the bell rung to signalise the beginning of the first lesson. She turned and almost jumped when she found Angel standing right in front of her.

"I’ll take care of what?"

"The cake. It’s tradition to have the boyfriend buy the cake. One year we had three cakes and we didn’t want to eat them all cos they were all covered in this horrible fattening cream stuff. See, this year we won’t have the same problem cos we know we’ll only have one cake and hopefully you’ll know not to buy one covered in cream."

"Sure...three? How one earth did she have three b-" Angel paused and looked at Cordelia’s sheepish expression, his mouth turning into an ‘o’ shape.

"Sunday at noon, don’t be late!" Cordelia shouted over her shoulder as she headed toward her science classroom.

*****

It was Sunday, noon, and Angel was nervous. In his hands were a cake and two different gifts, one for Kathryn and one for Buffy. The cake was a low-fat chocolate mud cake fresh from the bakery on Main that sold those fluffy cinnamon pastries he sometimes liked to have for breakfast. Starbucks was right next door, so it was convenient for him to have a nice healthy breakfast, even if it slightly resembled Holly’s in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The roses that lined the path were flowering madly, scenting the air with a mixture of different fragrances.

Angel stared at the doorbell, wishing he wouldn’t have to ring it. There would be a one in five chance that it would be Buffy answering the door. He hesitantly moved his finger toward the button, but was beaten by a finger with a perfectly painted nail, which was attached to a hand, which was attached to an arm, which was attached to...

"Cordelia. Hi. I brought the cake." Angel said nervously, awaiting the person who should reach the door first.

"Relax, the doorbell won’t bite. Nor will anyone behind that door except maybe Mr. Gordo."

"Come again?"

"Mr. Gordo. Buffy’s cat. An exquisite creature if I do say so myself, but Kathryn really hates him. Something about it being evil around her or something," Cordelia laughed at the imagery.

The door flew open, revealing Buffy with a half eaten croissant in one hand, a magazine in the other and Mr. Gordo at her feet. She didn’t even register who was at the door because she was concentrating on the article in the magazine and trying not to trip over her cat at the same time. "Come in, make yourselves at home."

"That was rude," Cordelia said before rushing into the house to find Kathryn.

"Sure, whatever Cordy," Buffy replied, taking a bite out of her croissant. She started closing the door, not realising there had been two people there in the first place.

"Wait, Buffy-"

"Oh my God, I’m sorry. It’s just this article. It’s so horrible how people kill those poor little baby seals for fashion." Buffy took another bite from her croissant, and almost fell over when Mr. Gordo started slinking around her feet. "Mr. Gordo, stop it."

"Happy birthday. Nice cat." Angel entered the house and closed the door behind him.

"Thanks." Buffy smiled when she noticed that Mr. Gordo abandoned her in favour of Angel, who was now trying not to come crashing to the ground, cake and all. "Mr. Gordo, I said stop. Ooh, cake." Buffy took the cake from him and headed down the long hallway to the very last doorway with Mr. Gordo at her heels.

Angel laughed and followed her to the kitchen.

"Mai Lee, here’s the cake. Make sure you put in the fridge of it’ll melt." Buffy handed the box to Mai Lee and finished the last of her pastry.

"How’d you know it’s the meltable kind?"

"Well you don’t look like the cream type. And I suppose Cordelia talked to you about the cream issue anyway, so...low-fat?" Buffy took a glass from the cupboard and started making coffee using the complicated looking machine on the other side of the large kitchen.

"Psychic now, are we?"

"No, just experience."

"Oh, I just remembered. I have a gift for you. Here," Angel handed her one of the presents from the two. "I hope it isn’t too much."

Buffy opened the box to reveal a silver ID bracelet with her name engraved on the tag; just the right length to go around Buffy’s wrist. "You didn’t have to."

"I wanted to."

"It’s beautiful, thank you."

"Mai Lee can y-" Kathryn stopped, surprised to find her boyfriend in the kitchen with her sister. "Angel, you’re here. We thought you went missing or something cos Cordy said she was at the door at the same time as you and you still hadn’t found the room we were in. Oh, where’s the cake?"

"In the fridge. Low-fat chocolate." Buffy answered, leaving the room with her coffee and her present.

"Ooh, yum. I love low-fat chocolate cakes. Is it a mud cake?"

"Yeah, how’d you know?"

"Experience." Kathryn wrapped her arms around his waist and said, "What? No happy birthday kiss?"

Angel smiled down at the brunette attached around his middle and took her mouth in a long, sweet kiss. "Happy birthday Kathryn."

"Yeah, happy birthday to me. Now, where’s my present?"

*****

"Willow, how much do you think this cost?" Buffy asked, showing her the bracelet she received from Angel.

"Well, it depends. What kind of metal do you think it is?"

"Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one who tells me what metal it is?"

"Well, if I’m right, then it’s sterling silver. If it is, then I estimate that it’s around...ooh, fifty or sixty odd dollars."

"Do you know what this means then?"

"He likes you? I think it’s pretty obvious that he does. Well, considering he’s hardly spoken to you and already he’s giving you personalised gifts," Willow took the bracelet from the box and went about putting it on Buffy’s wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I’m doing? The guy you have the hots for feels the same way and he gave you this beautiful birthday present and you aren’t gonna wear it? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?"

"Yeah, but it feels wrong. He’s still with Kathryn."

"Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. Stop it already. You know you want to." Willow closed the clasp and moved it around to see the engraving. She flipped the tag part of the bracelet over and found another engraving. "See, sterling silver."

"And I thought you were going to say that he had ‘Love, Angel’ engraved on the back..."

"Good things come to all who wait. Now come on, you don’t want to miss the party or that lovely guilt-free chocolate mud-cake."

"You know, they say it’s low-fat, but it still has fat in it so it’s not technically guilt-free."

"So what? It’s chocolate."

*****

"Dawn, don’t touch the matches," Joyce scolded her youngest daughter. It was time for the cake to be cut and the party to end. They were going to have dinner guests tonight and she wanted the house spotless well ahead of time so that Mai Lee would still have enough time to prepare a dinner for nine.

"Why?"

"Just don’t, they’re dangerous," Joyce replied. She set the cake on the dining table and stuck two candles in it; one for Kathryn and one for Buffy. There wouldn’t be enough time nor candles to put 36; all on the same smallish sized cake. "Okay, hurry up, I need this house spotless in an hour." She lit the candles and it was a unanimous decision that it would be okay if they didn’t sing.

The candles were blown out and the cake distributed and then everyone left, leaving a gigantic mess in their wake.

Joyce shook her head in despair. There’d be no way that the mess could be cleaned up quickly enough even if she and Mai Lee worked extra hard.

Seeing her mom like that and knowing the dinner guests were important for the gallery, she rested her hand on her mother shoulder comfortingly. "Don’t worry, mom, I’ll help," Buffy said and started picking up the dirty plates and forks scattered around the room.

By the time Buffy, Joyce, Mai Lee and Dawn had finished, it was gleaming with cleanliness.

"Sunday best, girls. Dinner guests at 6 o’clock sharp."

"Okay, mom," the two girls chorused.

"Now, I wonder where Kathryn is..." Joyce wondered aloud. Part 8

"Won’t you get in trouble for this? I thought you were grounded," Angel asked. They were walking around town aimlessly, not caring where they went just as long as it was away from their parents.

"It’s my birthday. They can’t punish me from wanting to get out of the house for a few hours." Kathryn wondered why she was being so nice to him. Normally it was just...being nice, getting some and then making them feel like shit, but with Angel...it felt wrong to her. Maybe she’d finally met someone worth crying over. But, as the saying goes, ‘No guy is worth crying over, but when you finally meet one who is, he won’t make you cry’.

Kathryn rested her head on his shoulder, only to be startled by the abrupt ringing of a mobile phone coming from the breast pocket of his jacket. "What the fuck, why the hell do you put your mobile in that pocket? It scared me half to death."

"Sorry, I forgot I even had it on." He flipped the cover open and held it to his ear, dreading the possibility it would be his parents scolding him for not being home for dinner in time. "Hello? Dad, why are you calling? ...Uh-huh, okay, sorry. Bye."

"Well, what did he say?"

"He wants me to come home cos we’re going to someone’s house for dinner. He told me this morning but I completely forgot. He says it’s really important or something. I’m sorry, he sounded really mad."

"It’s okay, I understand. We’re having dinner guests tonight, so I have to be home anyway." Kathryn brought his head down for a kiss. Or two. Or ten.

"Do you need a lift?" he asked between kisses.

"No, I’ll be fine. It’ll only take about 5 minutes to walk home anyway." She shrugged, "Besides, mom said ‘No convertibles!’ remember?"

"Okay, see you tomorrow then?"

"Of course."

"Bye birthday girl." Angel grinned and started backing away slightly to remove the temptation.

"By the way, I loved your present!" She yelled when he was halfway down the street, blowing him a kiss. **But do I love you?**

*****

"Buffy, Dawn, could you please come downstairs and help me set the table?" Joyce shouted up the stairs.

Buffy rushed down the stairs. They’d known about these mysterious dinner guests for a few days already and they still didn’t know who it was. "Sure mom. But why isn’t Mai Lee doing it?"

"She’s busy with the food. And, she doesn’t know how to set out this type of cutlery. Too many different forks and spoons, she says."

"Ooh, delving into the mega special cutlery now are we? And the company-plates? Who the heck is coming over? The Queen?"

"No, just a potential buyer for the gallery. Mr. Ferguson was at the opening and he was very interested in some of the artwork," Joyce said, taking the cutlery out from the box Mai Lee had stored them in after washing them earlier in the day.

"Ferguson? Could it possibly be Angel’s dad?"

"Possibly. But ‘Ferguson’ is a pretty common surname, Buffy."

The front door opened and slammed shut, the sound of thundering feet running up the stairs could be heard from every room in the house.

"Must be Kathryn," Joyce said, setting the rest of the napkins for Buffy to fold. "I’ll be right back."

"Okay mom," Buffy watched her leave the room, "sure, leave me to do all the table setting..."

*****

"Son, where have you been? You were meant to be home half an hour ago," Angel’s father straightened his tie and admired his own reflection in the hallway mirror.

"Out."

"Don’t dawdle, dear. We have to leave in five minutes and we want you in a suit. A.S.A.P." Angel’s mother hurried down the steps and took a light pink shawl out from the closet that Angel stood in front of.

"Does that mean I have to wear a tie?"

"We don’t have time for you to put on a tie that’ll make you look like you’re going to a funeral, so just...skip the tie and hurry up."

"Sure, whatever." Angel trudged up the stairs and was startled by his sister, Kathy, who burst out of her room right when he was about to open the door to his.

"Hi, Angie."

"Stop calling me that."

"Angie."

"Katie."

"Alright, alright...just don’t start calling me Katie…"

*****

"So, where exactly are we going?" Angel squirmed a little at the uncomfortableness of his suit. He hated to wear the thing and welcomed the day he saw it finally being thrown in the trash along with his parents’ music collection, which ranged from Bach to the Bee Gees.

"We’re dinner guests for Mr. and Mrs. Summers. Your father’s company is planning to buy art from her gallery to ‘jazz up’ their offices," his mother told him happily.

Angel smirked when no one was looking except for the dog in the car stopping next to them at the traffic lights. **Maybe the rest of my day won’t be so bad after all. I’ll get to see Kathryn, Buffy, Mrs. Summers AND have more of Mai Lee’s cooking.**

*****

*Ding, dong,* the doorbell rung loudly. Mai Lee hurried to answer it, checking her clothes for stains and creases before opening the door for the ‘important guests’.

Mai Lee bowed her head slightly. "Welcome. Please, come in." The family entered the house, everyone but Angel was admiring at the sheer size of the house compared to their own. Mai Lee closed the door behind them and attached herself to the wall.

"Ah, you’re here." Joyce shook Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson’s hands. "No need to introduce me to your son. We’ve already met."

"Really?" Mrs. Ferguson raised her eyebrows at her son.

"Oh, you didn’t know?" Joyce was surprised that Angel hadn’t even told his own family about having stayed for dinner. "He’s dating one of my daughters, and I asked him to stay for dinner last week while he was over here."

"Really?" Mrs. Ferguson looked at her son in questioningly, "Would that have been the night you said you’d had dinner at Gunn’s?"

"Sorry mom, I just didn’t want you to get worried over nothing. Mai Lee’s cooking is some of the best I’ve ever had," Angel said. Mai Lee bowed her head and thanked him shyly for the compliment. She was often praised for her cooking, but she’d never really mastered the art of accepting a compliment.

"Where’s the rest of your family? I’m dying to meet this mysterious girlfriend of Angel’s," Angel’s father nudged him teasingly. Angel just scowled and shook his head.

"Yeah, Angie," Kathy whispered so that only he and his family could hear.

Buffy had finished setting the table and Mr. Summers had arrived home just a few minutes after Kathryn. She heard the conversation going on out in the hallway and decided it would be more courteous to meet and greet than stay in the dining room doing nothing except sitting on her arse waiting for someone to give her something to do.

"Ah, Buffy, there you are. I’d like you to meet our guests, Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson," her mother spoke in a voice reserved only for people of importance, the kind of voice that so annoyingly snob-like. Sometimes Buffy got nausea if she heard it being used too long, but lately her ears had been adjusting since the gallery had gotten more business.

"Nice to meet you," she shook their hands and inquired the name of Angel’s younger sister, who was looking intently at a sculpture behind one of the glass cabinets in the hall.

"Oh, pardon me. Her name is Kathy. I suppose you already know my son. It seems everyone knows him."

"Kathryn and Dawn are still upstairs doing God-knows-what," Buffy said, taking a liking to Angel’s parents immediately. They seemed pleasant, a far cry from what she’d imagined them to be like. **I imagined them already? Okay, Buffy, just...chill. Stop thinking about it; next you’ll be thinking what your wedding dress will look like...**

"Come on Dawn, stop that," Kathryn’s voice said, loud enough to be heard from downstairs.

"Oh look, here they come," Buffy muttered under her breath.

Kathryn came down the stairs, smiling apologetically at their guests. "Sorry about that. Dawn was just being a nosey little girl and looking through my stuff," she looked angrily at Dawn, who was sheepishly following her sister down the stairs.

"Dawn, Kathryn, this is Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson, Angel and Kathy," Joyce said Angel’s name more emphatically as if she wanted to gauge her daughter’s reaction or something along the lines.

"Is your girlfriend the blonde one? Not a bad choice, son," Angel’s father whispered in his son’s ear. Angel smiled at his father’s reference to his blondes-only favouritism.

"No, wrong pick," Angel whispered back.

Mr. Ferguson was taken aback by the idea that his son was finally bringing his stop to his long history of blondes-only. "Huh? You’re pulling my leg, right?"

"Uh-uh, but she’s a natural blonde, of course," Angel chuckled with his father and left his side to talk to his girlfriend only to find that she was no longer in the hallway.

The ladies had gone to the living room for a chat, leaving the two men all by themselves without even noticing it.

"Huh? Where’d everyone go?" Mr. Ferguson looked around the room and found Hank leaving his office, his attention focused on the envelope in his hands.

Laughter coming from the living room made him look up, not realising that their guests had arrived yet. He saw the two men in the hallway, looking a bit confused. "I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you’d arrived yet. I’m Hank Summers," he introduced himself, shaking their hands hurriedly. "The ladies must be in the living room."

He led them into the living room where the two wives were talking about Passions, Kathy and Buffy were playing with Mr Gordo while Dawn looked on and Kathryn was the odd one out, not caring to join in any other activity than reading a magazine. She was right in the middle of a quiz called ‘Is it a lasting relationship?’.

"Hey, is it just me or is it a good time to be having dinner?" Hank asked.

*****

"That was fabulous. That’s the kind of stuff you can’t learn by watching Yan Can Cook," Mr. Ferguson said, putting his napkin on the table.

"Oh please, dad, you’d be more suited to ‘Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook’," Kathy said with a grin. "You would probably burn water if mom ever let you into the kitchen."

"Oh, Kathy, no need to flatter me so," he said in a squeaky voice, which made the rest of the gathering laugh at his poor imitation of a ‘lady’. Kathryn, however, wasn’t very amused by the behaviour of her boyfriend’s father. It could’ve been because of the wine but Kathryn wasn’t entirely sure.

"May I please be excused?" Kathryn asked politely. She felt the need for a quick fix to keep herself from throwing up at the way everyone was acting as if they’d all been friends for years. It was nauseating at the least, especially when someone made a stupid comment or told a dumb joke. **I can’t believe Angel and I are related to these people. I can tolerate Buffy sometimes but...just look at her...she’s actually enjoying this?**

"Of course you may, Kathryn," Joyce replied.

Kathryn elegantly placed her napkin onto the table and resisted the urge to run out of the room.

They watched her go to make sure she had really gone. "There must be a bug up her ass," Joyce joked, slightly drunk from all the wine they’d had.

*****

"Son, I’m not so sure I like you going out with that brunette. What’s her name? Kathleen?" Angel’s father said the next morning.

"Her name is Kathryn," Angel replied, showing no anger at his father’s words.

"But her twin, I liked her. See, you need a nice girl like her, not one of those prissy ones that judge people on what kind of car they drive."

"Are you still drunk?"

"No. I don’t think so. Buffy’s a nice girl. I’m not forcing you...but I’m just saying she’d be good for you."

**All in due time, dad, all in due time.** "We’ll see. I don’t even know if she likes me anyway."

"Who?" his mother walked into the dining room in her robe, holding a steaming mug of coffee. "Would you two boys be talking about either of the Summers twins?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Angel asked. Her mother always seemed to know what was going on in his life, even if he didn’t know about it. His thoughts led him to the fact that his father had just said that he thought that he should be dating Buffy instead of Kathryn. **Huh? What the fuck is that all about?** Angel frowned at his plate of breakfast: bacon, eggs, toast. Might as well have been green eggs and ham; Angel wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

"Call it ‘maternal intuition’. I’m your mother; I know stuff," she said with a chuckle. She sat in one of the remaining two chairs and watched her son stare at his food. "You know, staring at your food won’t get it eaten. And if you don’t eat it-"

"I will," Kathy said, grabbing a piece of the bacon from his plate.

"Hey! You little weasel!" Kathy screamed and scrambled to run away while her brother playfully chased after her.

"Sometimes I wonder how old you two should really be," their mother said. She shook her head, remembering the time when her two children had been young and carefree. Free from the torturous angst of adolescence-induced misery.

Angel had caught his 12 year-old sister in a tame headlock. "Say the magic word, Kathy."

"The magic word," Kathy giggled heartily, loving the way she could play on words however lame it ended up sounding. She knew they were only kidding around and that he was in too good a mood to keep her there until she apologised. She guessed that the good mood was due to Buffy, the twin she had met the night before who had that really adorable cat. She and Angel had gotten along VERY well.

"Kathy…"

"Fine, fine, I’m sorry. Besides, you have to leave for school now or you’ll be late so I get to eat all your bacon anyway!" Kathy grinned and sat down at the table and started at her brother’s ex-breakfast."

He watched her gobble down the breakfast he’d so painstakingly prepared for himself. He sighed and left the room, not really feeling as hungry as he had been when he’d first looked in the fridge that morning.

He picked his bag up from where he’d left it at the bottom of the stairs and picked up his keys from the four sets hanging from hooks in the hallway near the front door. Upon opening the door, he found Buffy there with her hand poised to knock.

She shrugged sheepishly and lowered her hand. "Never mind."

"Buffy. Hi. What are you doing here?"

"I just want to give this back to you." In her outstretched hand was the bracelet he had given her.

Part 9

She held out her hand further, coaxing him to take it from her. The bracelet shone in the sunlight, in all its glittering glory.

"Why?"

"I can’t accept this. And I have more than one reason for deciding to give it back and it’s not only because of my morals. I hardly even know you and you’re giving me expensive gifts." She huffed and grabbed his hand and shoved the bracelet into his hand. "Just...keep it."

"But I don’t know anyone else named Buffy. What am I going to do with it?"

"Don’t ask me. I’m not exactly one of those people who have a continuous flow of thoughts and ideas. Like that guy in Godzilla who kept coming up with more and more ideas. That was gay and all and it’s completely off topic so I’m just gonna storm off now," Buffy mumbled. She turned around and headed down the front steps. **Buffy! Stop acting like such a moronic idiot...**

"Wait!" Angel shouted, and closed the door behind him and rushed after her.

"What?"

"Why are giving this back?"

"Because," she sighed, "because you’re with my sister and I hardly know you and I’m very tempted to just grab you and kiss you right now." She spoke almost too fast for Angel to hear what she was saying. Almost. Even Buffy didn’t know what she was saying and when she did, she could swear that she was going to kick herself in the arse if Angel hadn’t been staring at her with wide eyes and a wide grin.

"Really?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"No," she replied in a daze, entranced by the darkness of his brown eyes. Not really chocolate, but like the rich dark chocolate of after dinner mints. "I mean, yes. Stop that." She spun on her heels and stomped down the rest of the stairs and struggled to open the gate.

"Do you want a ride? If you walk, you’ll be late."

Buffy sighed again. Should she or shouldn’t she? Tardy or not tardy? "Fine," she answered reluctantly.

He opened the gate and held it open for her to get through and closed it behind them. The bracelet was practically burning a hole in his hand.

He was poised to open the door for her and at the last minute, paused.

"What? Forgot the keys?"

Angel shook his head. All of a sudden, he turned to face her and pulled her close and caught her lips in a searing kiss. Sealed in fiery passion, their mouths melded in a dance of tongues, a bittersweet moment held—of all places—against Angel’s car on the side of a deserted street.

"That was…" Angel started to say when they’d mutually broken off the kiss to take a breath. They were panting from the experience, still disbelieving that it’d actually happened.

"Amazing," Buffy finished for him.

"We should really get going."

He opened the door for her to get in and got in on the driver’s side. They were now definitely going to be late, but it didn’t really matter to either of them. They’d both just experienced the best kiss they’d had in their entire lives and no one, not anyone, was going to wreck their moods. Not even Mrs. Peterson and especially not Kathryn.

*****

"WHAT?!" Willow and Xander screeched in unison.

"This is bad."

"No Xander, this is good. G-O-O-D, good."

"You guys, it was just a kiss. No need to go catatonic. Even if it was probably one of the best kisses I’ve EVER had." Buffy looked out the window and saw that the weather exactly fitted her mood. The sky was a bright shade of blue without a single cloud visible; perfect autumn weather. **How come I always associate my mood with the weather? Crazy Buffy, bad bad bad Buffy.**

"Just a kiss? How do you know he wasn’t trying to molest you or something?"

"Xander!" Willow and Buffy shouted at the poor boy at the same time.

He shrunk into his seat, "Okay, now I know a few things I definitely shouldn’t say..."

"Mrs. Peterson is never late, where is she? It’s like her policy; never be late."

"I dunno, but I guess it’s my lucky day. I was late and I didn’t even get in trouble for it."

"Ha, lucky day my butt. I bet we’re having a sub. And with our luck, it’ll be Giles and he’ll lecture us for ages about something historical and he’ll wipe his glasses with his handkerchief three or four times and walk in with a pile of books and a cup of fresh made tea..."

"Sorry I’m late," Giles said, fumbling with a pile of books and a cup of tea, "Principal Snyder didn’t tell my I had to substitute until just two minutes or so. My apologies."

Xander gave them his ‘I told you so’ look and shrunk even further into his seat.

*****

"So, B, I hear you kissed someone this morning," Faith said with a grin. They’d been lectured by Giles for the rest of history lesson (just as Xander had said he would). Buffy and Willow had counted the number of times he’d cleaned his glasses; three and half times since he’d been in the middle of cleaning them a fourth time when the bell had rung.

Faith and Spike had been sitting on the other side of the room since Xander and Willow had arrived later than usual because of a run-in with Cordelia and had only been able to save one extra seat (for Buffy). Nonetheless, the three of them had been speaking so loudly that everyone in the whole room could hear the conversation.

"Really?"

"Was it Angel?"

Buffy had to smile at the way Faith was acting. She was never like this, not ever. She was usually more laid back, even when she was excited. Well, unless she was REALLY excited...

"As a matter-of-fact, yes. But don’t tell everyone okay? I want you to keep it shut."

"Okay, no gabbing... Was it good?"

"Faith! How could you ask me a question like that? Of course it was," Buffy laughed and Faith gaped at her. **Oh my God, it’s been so long since she’s acted like this...so happy. The old Buffy wouldn’t have joked around about a kiss. Well not with me at least.**

"How good?"

"Amazing."

*****

The whole group had gathered at the Bronze for "a little bit o’ fun", as Spike had put it. Buffy was dressed for comfort and appeal, expecting Angel to be there tonight. She was lucky that her sister was still grounded, but the little voice in the back of her mind told her that she was just that—LUCKY. Kathryn would explode when she found out. Yeah, not ‘if’, but ‘when’.

"Oi, pet. You want a drink?" Spike asked the blonde.

"Sure, I’m practically dying of thirst but I can’t be bothered to move..." she mumbled, her eyes trained on the door. **I know this is wrong, but it feels right. And that’s all that matters...**

"Hey Buffy, are ya gonna be partying with us tonight or are you going to be staring at the door all night?" Xander asked through the din.

"What? Oh, of course."

"Which one?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Go do your little lovesick-like-people-who-liked-Sleepless-In-Seattle thing. I’ll just sit here and..." Xander saw Spike coming towards them with the sodas, "and drink my soda."

"Here we are. And I don’t even have a clue how I managed to hold five cups of soda all at the same time. It’s rather strange..."

Just then, Angel stepped into the Bronze flanked by his friends, Charles Gunn (though everyone just called him ‘Gunn’), Allan Francis Doyle (many people didn’t even know his full name, just called him Doyle and left it at that) and a few of his other friends from the team followed closely behind.

"Hey man, isn’t that your girlfriend’s sister?" Gunn asked Angel quietly, glancing at the beautiful blonde in question. They’d made their way inside the club and as usual, the group separated, all looking for a babe to talk up. Except Doyle who had disappeared in the direction of the bar. He’d recently split with his long-time girlfriend, Harry. Apparently Doyle always carried his ‘card’: his fake ID, which he’d had done while he was on holiday in Mexico.

"Yeah," Angel replied. He could hardly take his eyes off her long enough to look at his watch. 8:00, on the dot. He was right on time.

"Do you think you could fix me up with her? Hot girl like her, all alone."

"No," Angel said without hesitation. "I mean, I hardly know her."

"Sure you do. I got some kind of crapped up rumour that you pashed the blonde one this morning."

"It isn’t true," Angel replied with a gulp

Gunn raised one of his eyebrows. "Right...I believe you..."

"Fine, fine. So what if we did? I just don’t want Kathryn to find out, okay? So keep your mouth CLOSED." Angel saw Buffy approaching them.

"Amen," Gunn joked before leaving his friend in search of Doyle. It wasn’t very easy dragging the guy into a car, out of it and then into an elevator up to the tenth floor to the apartment he lived in with his parents. One of these days Gunn would drag the guy to an AA meeting instead of home where most of Doyle’s family’s supply of liquor lived.

"Hi," Buffy said when she had gotten to where Angel was.

"Hey gorgeous," Angel said with a sexy half-smile.

"Dance?" Buffy asked when a slow song came on.

Angel took her hand and led her to the dance floor. He didn’t care who saw anymore, it was all worth it. Besides, he wouldn’t let Kathryn to get the better of him. Would he?

//Kiss me
Out on the bearded barley
Nightly
Beside the green, green grass
Swing, swing
Swing the spinning step
You wear those shoes and I will
Wear that dress//

They swayed to the music, enjoying the simple company of each other. She closed her eyes and leant her head on his chest. She shut out the outside world, not worrying about the consequences. As far she was concerned, there were no consequences.

//Oh, kiss me
Beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance
Silver moon's sparkling
So kiss me//

Angel rested his head on hers, inhaling the smell of her shampoo. It was apple flavoured; one of those kids shampoos that did pretty much the same as the expensive ones. He used that kind of shampoo too; he liked the smell too much to stop using it. Gunn teased him about it all the time, but he didn’t care.

//Kiss me
Down by the broken tree house
Swing me
Upon its hanging tyre
Bring, bring
Bring your flowered hat
We'll take the trail marked
On your father's map//

The crowd was thick and there were couples swaying all around them. Buffy and Angel swayed to the rhythm of the soft music and didn’t notice a single person except each other. In oblivion.

//Oh, kiss me
Beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance
Silver moon's sparkling
So kiss me//

"This is perfect," Buffy said, lifting her head to look into his eyes; just for a moment. She laid her head back onto Angel’s chest, her lips parting in a contented smile.

**It sure is, love. It’s absolutely perfect.**

//Kiss me
Beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance
Silver moon's sparkling
So kiss me
So kiss me
So kiss me
So kiss me//

Angel pressed a kiss to her forehead. He took the bracelet from his pocket and said, "Here," and he took her wrist and clasped on the bracelet with ease. He’d accidentally forgotten to give it back after that incredible kiss they’d shared that morning.

"Thank you," she said simply before turning and walking out the door.

Go to Part 10