Kathy's Revenge

Chapter 27
Faiths POV

A few weeks pass and the money is running out… at least Buffy hasn’t relapsed with all the shit that’s been going down here… me and Willow, Xander’s eye, Spike being alive… and of course the fact that we now know that Andrew isn’t gay… why is it that the bit that is the hardest to believe?

Giles has been trying to find a job, what exactly is he going to do though? He wasn’t exactly librarian when he was a librarian if you know what I mean. Willow wants me to go back to school so I can get my high school diploma thing… I guess it will give me something to do apart from slaying and laying (Hehe I am a poet and I didn’t know it.) not that there is anything wrong with my life… why the hell would I want to go back to school and reduce my smoochie time… although Willow did say that I would get rewarded for going and when I do my homework and stuff… Willow in leather… Willow in leather thong… Willow naked… Willow naked with chocolate sauce all over her… oh my god Willow naked with the sauce from those fucking tasty wings she makes all over her! Okay, okay enough with the imagination I don’t wonna get my hopes up too much. Her idea of a treat might be that I can do some more Algebra.

I snap out of my inner conversation when Willow comes into our room and flops down on the bed next to me.

“You don’t seem too happy… what’s up?” I ask sitting up.

“Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid restaurants! I am never going to any of them! I’ve written them all down and none of us can ever go to them ever unless it’s to kill something there.”

I give her a disapproving look.

“I mean if there is something other worldly…” She says, even though I know she didn’t really mean it. I look at her again to tell her to explain. “I got everyone enrolled in school or college and I got all your timetables in my bag downstairs.”

“And that is why you are so pissed?” I ask raising an eyebrow, my favourite left one.

“I couldn’t get a job… I asked at loads of places and I filled in some forms but guess what they were all ‘Sorry miss Rosenberg but you need some experience.’” She puts on a snobbish voice for this sentence. “And where the hell am I meant to get experience if they wont give me any? Am I meant to just pluck it out of thin air? I should have lied and said I got some in Sunnydale, its not like they can check anymore is it… but no I have to be miss goody, goody and be all honest! The only place I am qualified to work as a chef is at Macdonald’s!” she shouts the last sentence.

She gets up from the bed, grabs a vase from the bedside table and throws it at the wall.

“Woah Red calm down… chill out, it’s gonna be okay.” I say jumping up off the bed. She looks at the broken bits of vase on the floor and holds her hand out, her hair goes white and the vase reassembles and appears in the palm of her hand. She takes a deep breath then puts the vase back on the table.

“It is just so frustrating, I am gonna end up doing the computer thing again aren’t I? I want to cook, I like it and I’m good at it…” She trails off as I hug her; I hope this works at calming her down.

Willows outburst at the lack of opportunities available to her has pretty much affected her as much as it has me. Frustration is coursing through my blood. Training sounds like a good idea.

Where is B?

“Hey B.” I say walking into the kitchen. “Wonna go do some training and show the newbies how it’s done?” I ask with a smirk.

“Sure, come on everyone time for a demonstration of what a real slayer fights like.” She says to the room.

The basement is packed out. Willow is sitting on the old sofa with Xander and Spike; Andrew sits on the arm of the chair next to willow with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and his video camera in the other.

I shake my head at him. “What? Watching this is like watching an action movie… need snacks.” He says handing the bowl to Oz who is sitting in a dining room chair next to him.

I pull out the smaller of the blue mats. Which isn’t saying much they’re all still huge. Also might point out that I do this alone. I look totally uncoordinated doing this. Anyway this exercise is simple. Fighting with limited space.

“First off the mat loses?” I ask when I’ve set the mat down. It’s not especially high so no risk of damage there.

“What no two out of three F?” She’s trying to tease me.

“Can take you in one B.” I take off my jacket, shoes and socks and step onto the mat.

She does the same and we take or respective stances. Call me weird but I really, really don’t want to be throwing the first punch to the crazy person so I wait for her to start. It seems that she’s as impatient as I am in this department. She aims a fast punch right at my nose. It’s the first punch so I’m going to catch it aren’t I? Damn right. I bring my forearm up to deflect the punch. Immediately dropping to sweep her legs from under her.

Which she jumps over. Looks like she’s been training in LA. I’m up on my feet in a nanosecond and we begin to trade blows. See we have this annoying habit of being as good as each other so it’s not easy to land a blow. I manage to land a backhand blow to the side of her face, which makes her lose her balance but not enough to get her off the mat. She’s back up before I know it, landing a well-placed punch to my shoulder. Which, I’m going to admit that I dropped. Not a good idea in a fight with the queen of dropping her shoulder. The punch pushes me around on the ball of my foot and I nearly go off the mat. My toes are hanging off the edge but I refuse to lose damn it.

I swing around and bring my feet into play. Using the movement of swinging around to face her, I bring my leg up almost parallel with the floor and catch her in the side of the head again.

“Right. Time out.” I move my hands into the ‘T’ they use at basketball games. “This is not working. Wonna raise the stakes?”

She lifts one of her eyebrows. “What do you have in mind?”

I take myself off the mat. I take a floor-balancing beam and place it over the middle of the mat. Something to step over makes it interesting. Each end of the beam extends a few feet past where the mat does. “On the beam off the mat is legal?” She nods her approval. I go over to the weapons cabinet and take out two quarter staffs. Throwing one to her and situating myself back on the mat. “Lets dance B.” I twirl the staff in a circular motion.

“Any time ‘F’” She takes hold of the staff, her hands a shoulders width apart.

The two ends meet between us. She goes to attack me again. I manage to get the staff around and block her attack with the space of the wood between my hands.

I bring the other end up and crash it into her side.

As she loses her footing I don’t see if she’s still on the mat or not as my vision warps going white for a second then comes back into focus. Different time. Different place. But my eyes back in focus.