Chapter 30: When Worlds Collide, Part Two
Author's Notes: Here's part two of the big 'first meeting' chapter. People are who they are, and they live and they screw up and they grow. As do my characters. Please keep that in mind when reading these chapters. They aren't fluffy bunny Spike and Xander and Oz (and Giles, for that matter) in these chapters. But this is a VERY LONG STORY. There's room for personal growth and forgiveness here. Thanks to all who read and review.
Thursday Afternoon
In the Library Shortly after having run Spike out of the library, Mr. Giles brought out a sign and placed it before the double doors, indicating to all that the library was closed for the afternoon. Having thus ensured that no one else was permitted to come into the library, he walked into his office, and closed the door. That had been thirty minutes ago, and he had not appeared since.
Buffy had attended private schools her entire life, from the very prestigious Catholic schools in her hometown, to the little classroom within the maternity home that she had been shunted off to prior to giving birth to Katie. But she had to believe that in spite of her lack of experience with either California or the public school system in general, that her treatment today at the hands of these educators could not be the usual public school experience. Something was wrong, and all the indicators said that it was her. Something was wrong with
Buffy, and other students were being shielded from her as though she were a virus threatening to infect 'the system'. The 'system', in this case, being Sunnydale High School itself. This was a depressing thought, and one she did not entertain lightly. There were a lot of things she didn't know, a lot of signals that she had missed in her short life.
Obviously. But she knew when people didn't like her.
She now sat at the table, alone, eating... something.... in silence.
*What
is this?* she wondered again, as she poked at a glop of mushy green...stuff. She tasted a tiny bit, but nothing registered. It looked like it was supposed to be in the vegetable family, but it was a baffle.
*Skip that. Seriously. Life is telling you something when food looks like that. It's a warning sign, a big neon poster saying, 'poison' or 'ick'... Actually, it
has a kind of neon quality to it--*
Suddenly the double doors swung open. Buffy whipped her head around to see who had dared to defy 'the sign'. It was a small girl, about her size actually, with long straight reddish brown hair and a sweet face. She wore a fuzzy pink sweater with yarn flowers placed haphazardly upon it, and a little red skirt. Black tights and loafers completed the look. Buffy wasn't sure exactly what the look was supposed to say, but the girl seemed nice from her demeanor, and she was willing to embrace anyone in this building today that did not ignore her, disdain her, or try to seduce her. This girl looked harmless, at any rate.
Afraid that if Mr Giles realized she had company that he'd come and remove the girl bodily from the room, Buffy signaled to the new girl that she should be very quiet and come sit beside her.
For her part, the new girl walked quickly and quietly over and took the seat Buffy had indicated. Once the girl had settled down, Buffy took a good look at her new companion and realized with a start that she knew this one. It was Little Red-Haired Girl! From the
Espresso Pump earlier that year. First Great Coat Guy, now Little Red-Haired Girl. It was almost like a reunion. Except that they of course didn't know each other, at all, and the others didn't actually know that she even existed, until less than an hour ago. It was ridiculous, of course, but this was the closest she had gotten to actually having kids her own age to talk to and 'hang out' with since she went in the hospital last November. Well, 'hang out', if you consider a few sentences for a few minutes at the most, 'hanging out'.
She'd take that today. That sounded like heaven to her today.
"Hi!" Buffy smiled happily at her new companion. "I'm Buffy Summers. And I am
so glad to see you!"
"Me?!" Little Red-Haired Girl squeaked, then lowered a few octaves and said, "I mean, hi." She smiled nervously.
"Hi. I'm kinda shut up in here today taking tests so I can start school here for spring semester. And I
so want to talk to someone who is not....old."
"Oh!
Buffy! I can do that," Willow chattered happily. "I'm your tutor. Willow Rosenberg. Happy to meet you."
Buffy beamed at her new tutor and pushed the tray far away down the table. "So, tutor, what's the plan for today?"
Willow looked around a second, and seeing no one else, asked Buffy where Giles had gotten off to.
"Giles? You mean Mr. Giles, the librarian, right?"
"Well, yeah, but we don't call him 'Mr'. Just Giles."
"He's okay with that?"
"I guess. It's what Spike calls him, and we're all friends for a while now, so we all kinda call him Giles too."
"You know Spike?" Buffy couldn't believe her good fortune. "Tell me about him. What's his deal?"
Willow was taken aback by Buffy's enthusiasm for Spike. She didn't even know she'd met him yet.
*He works so
fast! How did he get in here already? It's barely lunchtime.*
"Um, he's a friend of mine for a couple years now, and he's a really great guy overall..." Willow trailed off.
"But? There's a 'but' in there somewhere."
"But, he got his heart stomped on a few months ago and he's in a dark place right now. I shouldn't even be telling you this, but I kinda think I have to warn you."
"Warn me?" Buffy frowned, dreading what was coming next.
"Yeah," Willow looked miserably at her new student. "I feel really disloyal telling you this, but..." She sighed unhappily and took the plunge. "He's kinda playing the
dating scene right now."
Buffy stared at Willow blankly.
"
Dating a lot." Willow tried again.
Nothing.
"He's had a lot of...
girlfriends... this last six months or so, and I don't mean the kind he'd take home to meet his family."
"Girlfriends?" Buffy hoped she wasn't referring to hookers. Because that was so skeezy. And ick. And heartbreaking.
"What I mean is, he's been kinda getting to know girls, mostly girls who don't know him that well, and then acting all interested in them, then sleeping with them...."
"And then...goodbye, thanks for the ride?" Buffy finished with dismay.
"Pretty much."
Buffy sat back in her chair and tried to fathom the depths of her disappointment in this piece of news. She had been so happy to see him again, and he'd seemed so into her just a short while ago. He was playing her? Really? Just to get in her pants? This day really sucked.
Willow saw Buffy's disappointment and felt bad for having told her about Spike's history but she really didn't want to see her become just another notch on Spikes' belt. As her student and a girl completely new to Sunnydale, Buffy deserved to be informed if she was about to walk off a cliff and into Spike's 'little black book'.
~~~~~~
The Cafeteria When Spike left the library, he headed straight to the cafeteria to have lunch and confer with his friends about the beauty he had just met.
*Good. Willow is no where 'round, prob'ly on her way to talk to the girl even now.*
Oz and Xander were seated at their usual table, debating whether the green stuff on their plates today was animal, vegetable, or mineral. It was a dead heat between vegetable and mineral. Green animal matter was simply too horrible to contemplate.
Spike slid in between them and hunched over conspiratorially, prompting them to move closer to hear whatever information he had obtained during 'Operation New Girl'. In all fairness, it was only Xander who actually called it that. As Spike observed, sometimes you simply cannot deny your inner dork.
"Well?" Xander prompted impatiently.
"Fuckin' gorgeous," Spike pronounced. "And right fuckable, too."
Xander sighed happily and sat back a little bit. He lived vicariously through Spike's dating life. And Spike's 'gorgeous' standards were high, so he had great hopes for this one's beauty. Not that it would make any difference to
him, since Spike had called her, and Xander would not move into his territory for anything.
*
Right. As though
that is what prevents me from stealing the girls who swoon over Spike.*
"Willow in there?" Oz wanted to know.
"Dunno, m' uncle tossed me out on my ear before lunch even started," Spike informed Oz, then continued on. "And,
this one shouldn't take but a minute to get to, she was already into me when I walked in the room there."
"No shit?" Oz raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"No shit," Spike nodded at Oz. "Was like she'd already met me, acted like she knew exactly who I was and what she wanted to do with me." He snagged a chip from Xander's plate.
Xander smacked his hand and pulled his plate away closer to himself in a protective shield. Then he looked at the food again, and moved the plate back where it was.
"And what exactly do you think she wanted to do with you, Spike?" Xander teased.
"Naughty things, my friends. Very naughty things." Spike smirked and stole another chip from Xander.
"Nope." Oz was succinct but certain.
"No?" Spike swung his head in puzzlement toward Oz. "What do you mean?"
"Willow's in there with her now."
"Yeah?"
"Talking with her?" Spike sat back and frowned. Oz continued. "
Warning her..."
"Shit, you're right. She'd be all protective of her student, wouldn't she?" Spike had to think about this one. He knew Willow didn't approve of his dating behavior, but she had so far stayed out of it. Now, though, she might feel that Buffy somehow
belonged to her, and become protective of her. This could turn out badly... No, no, he could still do this.
"I'll bet I can still get to her, even if Willow does interfere," Spike mused.
"No way," Xander pronounced with certainty. "Once Willow tells this girl what you're up to, she'll be immune from you. It's like she'd be vaccinated."
"What?" Spike turned to Xander in confusion.
"You know. Like when you don't want someone to get smallpox, you vaccinate them against smallpox so they can't get smallpox any more." Xander nodded wisely.
"You comparing me to smallpox, mate?"
"Well, you have been spreading through the freshmen girls." Oz noted dryly.
Xander and Spike both turned to stare at Oz in amazement.
Oz shrugged and rose from his chair.
The bell rang immediately afterwards.
"How does he do that? It's like when an animal senses earthquakes, you know?" Xander wondered.
Spike shook his head and pointed out sarcastically. "They have these things now. Clocks." He nodded in the direction of the one on the wall over their heads.
As they gathered up their trays and took them to the trash area, Spike leaned over and made Xander a little offer. "Twenty bucks says I can get this one on a date before the spring semester starts."
Xander thought about it a moment and said, "You're on." Then he added, "And a hundred bucks says you won't get her to sleep with you even if you do get that date."
"Forever?"
Xander gave that some thought. "Six months. From today."
Spike laughed and shook his head. "You better be ready to pay up. Cuz I'm gonna win that one easy."
Xander smiled, and shook his head. *Not with Willow around you won't.*
~~~~~~
In the Library When Giles emerged from his office, he was startled to see that Willow had already arrived and was deep in conversation with Buffy. And if his ears were not deceiving him, his nephew's name was coming up a lot in the process.
He cleared his throat to get the girls attention, then sat opposite them at the table. Time to get their minds off boys and onto school work.
"Willow, I am very glad to see that you're on time. Here are the subjects Buffy must study," he handed her a folder with study guides and interim tests, and a stack of books Buffy had been assigned to read. "As well as the books she will need to use. She needs to pass the mid-term exams for each of these classes, and then once that is done attempt the semester final."
"Okay," Willow nodded cheerfully. "We can do this, no problem." She turned to Buffy, "As long as you spend some quality study time each day,
hours of study time, we can get you past these tests by mid-January. Okay?"
Buffy nodded solemnly. "Major studying. Gotcha."
"Buffy," Giles started to chide her. "This is serious. You must study or there is no point in wasting either Willow's or my time with this."
"No! No, I am all with the studying. I'm all over it." Giles frowned at her. "Really."
Giles sighed and rose from the table. "Well then, I think it's time you should be leaving, Buffy. You have your assignments and your books. Did you set up a time to meet with Willow tomorrow and this weekend?"
Buffy looked uncertainly at Willow. "We exchanged phone numbers. But we could set up a time for tomorrow after school if that's okay with you, Willow?"
"Sure. We can get together right after school. And on Saturday!" Willow smiled.
Buffy's face fell. "Um, no. Saturday doesn't work for me. I have plans..."
Giles crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Buffy. "You have nothing more important to do than prepare for these tests in January,
Buffy. There is no time for playing around."
Buffy's entire demeanor changed as she looked Giles straight in the eye and declared forcefully, "I'm not playing around. And there are some things that
are more important than anything else. Even more important than studying for your tests,
Giles."
He was about to take her to task for being both frivolous and impudent, but something in her eyes stopped him. She seemed deadly serious about this, and somehow he doubted that the 'other plans' had anything to do with hair appointments, parties, or dates with boys. Whatever this was, it was very important to her. He backed down, and nodded grimly that he would concede her point.
Buffy nodded once, then turned to Willow and told her she'd call her tonight and they could decide whose home to study in and what subjects and chapters to begin with.
And with that, Buffy thanked them both and left the library. She'd had enough of Sunnydale High School for one day.
~~~~~~
Outside in an old black DeSoto, Spike sat smoking a cigarette, waiting for 'his girl' to leave the library and head on home. As soon as he saw her leave the campus from the direction of the library, he started his engine and followed her from far enough away that she would not realize she was being tailed.
He watched as she walked about three blocks into an affluent neighborhood and approached a large beautiful house and let herself inside. He noted the street and house number, and drove on off.
It wouldn't be long before she was eating out of his hand.
~~~~~~~~
I think I need to remind everyone that this is a LONG JOURNEY, and to please just roll with it as it comes. Some conversations and behavior may not be fluffy bunny Spike (or Xander, or Oz), but this is what is right now. No flames, please. Thanks.
As usual, please read and review. Pretty please.
Sara