The Courtship of Buffy Summers

Buffy Summers walks up the stairs of Sunnydale and into the large building. She remembers first showing up on the steps of this school, looking around and feeling so out of place. But today she actually feels like she belongs. ‘Ah, the first day of senior year, could this be any better? I’m happy, I’m healthy, and I’m finally on the top of the totem pole. Freshmen will bow down at my feet, and the sophomores will get my lunch for me. This year is going to be so cool.’


“Did you get dressed in a closet this morning?” Cordelia asks as she and her sheep walk by. Buffy just rolls her eyes and keeps walking. She learned a long time ago that it’s better to just ignore whatever Cordelia says. “Or did you forget that the jeans and t-shirt look belongs only in trailer parks?” ‘Or things can be exactly like they were last year, and the year before that.’ She starts walking down the hall towards the cafeteria to get her lock number and combination. As she her way down the hallway Xander breaks off from the crowd to walk next to her.


“Seniors rule!” she yells and bumps him with her shoulder. He staggers to the side a little but he doesn’t fall. ‘That would have been so funny,’ she thinks and adjusts the shoulder straps of her back pack. Over the summer she didn’t hang out with Willow and Xander as much as she would have liked. Willow’s parents finally took an interest in their daughter’s life so she spent most of the summer in Europe with them. And Xander spend most of his time hanging out at home at the Bronze getting rejected by girls. “Hey Xander, I’m surprised to see you here on time.”


“Willow stopped by and said if I want any tutoring at all this year I have to get up and be here before the first bell rings. So I’m up, I’m here, and I really want to go back home.” Buffy laughs and gets a big smile on her face when she sees the redhead in question gossiping with some of the AV nerds. ‘Hey, they’re not nerds. They’re Willow’s friends so you better be nice.’ “Hey Wills. Nerds.” See, even Xander thinks they’re nerds. ‘Oh so you’re basing your judgment on what Xander thinks? Yes this is going to be great.’


“Hey Xan, are you guys headed to the cafeteria?” she asks and gives him a little glare for saying ‘nerd’. Because apparently that’s a bad word. The two nod their heads and Willow turns back to her other friends. “I’ll talk to you guys later. I still haven’t gone there yet.” They say their goodbyes and the ginger girl joins her two friends on the journey to the cafeteria. ‘Hey if we had one more person this could be like a weird version of the Wizard of Oz. I could Dorothy, Xander could be the scarecrow, Willow could be the lion, and Faith would be-’


“Toto,” she says as soon as she sees Faith. Willow and Xander both stop walking just to give her some very strange looks. “Oh, did I just say that out loud?” They both nod their heads and Buffy blushes very deeply. She watches Faith and furrows her eyebrows when she sees the brunette shake hands with some guy she’s never seen before. ‘Is he new or something? Don’t tell me he’s a new member of her little group. There are enough guys in it already. I wonder why Faith is the only girl.’


As soon as she gets close to Faith the brunette grabs her by the shoulders and pushes her up against the locker. She kisses her very deeply, and for a few seconds Buffy forgets where they are and kisses her back. Their tongues battle for dominance, and the blonde sticks her thigh in between Faith’s legs. And just when Buffy is getting really into it, Faith pulls back and turns towards the strange guy that Buffy has never seen before.


“Alright dude, pay up,” she says and holds out her hand. Buffy watches with a lot of confusion while the guy shakes his head and pulls his wallet out of his back pocket. Faith sees the look on Buffy’s face and smiles. “Jack here didn’t believe him when I turned him down, and told him I’m a lesbian. So I bet him twenty bucks that I am, and you just helped prove it.” The guy hands her twenty dollars, and doesn’t say anything when he walks away.


“You do realize half of that is mine, right?” Buffy asks and Faith gets a weird look on her face. Buffy laughs a little and rolls her eyes. “Fine, I still owe you for lunch the other day.” Faith pockets the twenty and Buffy reaches out and holds onto her hand. The two are doing a little better then they were two weeks ago. Things are still a little tense between them, but since there’s that first day of school excitement neither of them are going to bring it up.


“We’re off for our locker numbers, wanna come?” Buffy asks and Faith nods her head. The four teenagers start walking towards the cafeteria, although not all of them as comfortably as the others. ‘Ooohhhhhh, we’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. You’ll find he is a wiz of a wiz if ever a wiz there was! If ever oh ever a wiz there was the Wizard of Oz is one because, because, because, because, because, becaaaausssse,
because of the wonderful things he does. Ooohhhhhh we’re off to see the wizard. The wonderful Wizard of Oooooz!’


“Dude, are you humming the Wizard of Oz song?” Faith asks and gives her girlfriend a sidelong glance. Buffy gets embarrassed, and blushes very deeply, but she shakes her head no anyway. “Awww, look she’s embarrassed.” Willow and Xander look over at her, and Buffy gives Faith a little smack on her shoulder. “Hey, no need to get violent.” She leans over and gives the blonde a little kiss on the cheek. “I gotta run, I’ll catch you later.”
“And where do you have to be right now?” ‘She thinks she can just embarrass me in front of my friends and then take off? I don’t think so.’ Faith gives her a little kiss on the lips, but that slightly irritated look doesn’t go away.


“I have to keep up a tradition, ok?” she gives the blonde another kiss on the lips and leaves without saying another word. ‘Keep up a tradition, what is that supposed to mean?’ She looks over at Willow and Xander and both of them look completely clueless. So the three make their way to the cafeteria, and get in line to receive their locker number and combination to the lock. Everything is nice and normal, which is exactly what Buffy wants right now.


‘I don’t want to think about anything depressing or stressful that doesn’t involve high school. There will be no thoughts of the future going on in this head today. Nosireebob. Just thoughts about homework, how boring the classes are, and if the supply closet is going to be empty during lunch because I’m feeling a little frisky right now and I don’t think it’s going to go away on it’s own.’


“What are you smiling about?” Willow asks with a knowing look in her eyes. ‘There’s no way she can know how I’m feeling right now. No way at all.’ “So, did you and Faith hang out a lot during the summer?” Buffy nods her head and Willow’s smile gets a little bigger. “Did you leave the house at all, or just the bedroom to get food and water?” Buffy and Xander stop walking and look at their friend like she just grew three, heads, turned purple and sprouted a tail.


“Who are you and what have you done with Willow?” Xander asks and Buffy nods her head in agreement. The redhead looks a little stunned by the way the two are acting and she tries to brush off the question. “What did those Europeans done to you?” Willow gives him another strange look and she just smiles. Then she looks over at Buffy and she gets a very goofy grin on her face.


“We have a lot we need to talk about,” she says and gives Buffy this all knowing look. The blonde isn’t too sure what to think of the look so she just nods her head. “We better hurry or we won’t have a locker to put our books in at break.” They agree and start walking towards the cafeteria yet again. ‘So what the hell is up with Willow? What did she do when she as in Europe. And where exactly did she go in Europe?’


After they get their locker numbers and find and drop some of their stuff off at said lockers they have just enough time left to make it to their first class without being late. ‘I can’t believe my schedule this year. I have Geometry, English III, World History, Chemistry, P.E. and I am now a future business leader of America. Why do we even need elective credits? Those are so stupid. It’s bad enough I have to sit here and listen to Ms. Baker go on and on about how to find the missing side of a triangle.’


The little blonde toughs it out though, and makes it through her first three classes. She just now realized that she doesn’t have a seventh period like most of the students of this school, which means she gets to go home early. ‘I love being a senior!’ She goes out to the quad and sits down at a table. She looks around but she doesn’t see Faith, Willow or Xander anywhere. ‘That’s weird, I wonder where they are?’ She turns around in her seat when she hears a commotion going on, on the other side of the quad.


‘What the hell is Faith doing?’ she asks herself, and watches as Faith and her four friends pick up some weak looking kid and put him in a very full trashcan. ‘No way, she just threw that freshman in the garbage? And here I was going to have sex with her in the janitor’s closet like one of the slutty cheerleaders.’ Buffy gets up and marches across the quad and stands directly in front of her laughing girlfriend.


“What’s up, B?” the brunette asks and leans in for a kiss. But the blonde moves away and out of Faith’s reach. She looks a little confused, until she actually takes a second to really look at Buffy’s face and she tries so hard not to roll her eyes. ‘Oh boy, here we go. This should be good,’ she thinks and waits.


“You’re a jerk that’s what’s up,” she says and moves passed the brunette and the laughing boys. “I’m so sorry. Here let me help you.” She grabs onto the kid’s hand and tries to pull him out but his ass it too far down the aluminum can, and he’s too heavy and before anyone can stop it he goes tumbling over. He hits his head on the ground but not very hard. Trash goes everywhere, and everyone in the quad, except Buffy and the injured boy, start laughing. “Would you help me out here?”


“Why?” Faith asks and leans against the stone wall. “He’s just some stupid freshman. He needs to be hazed if he wants to go here.” Buffy stands up straight and gives Faith a weird look. It’s a cross between anger, confusion, sadness, and more anger. Faith does roll her eyes this time, and lets out a big sigh too. “What’s that look for?” There’s a moment’s pause before Buffy speaks, and when she does everyone feels the sting.


“I was just wondering how I fell in love with a total jerk.” Buffy helps the kid to his feet, and she tells him how to get to the nurse’s office. She tries to walk back over to her table after that but Faith stops her by lightly grabbing her arm. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want to hear any of your excuses. What you did was mean, and humiliating, and I don’t want to even look at you right now.” She stomps back over to her table and is quickly joined by Willow and Xander. Both of them are concerned about the blonde and the way she acted, but she won’t open up and tell them the real reason she got so upset.


‘If all she really wants to do is screw around with her friends like that then how are we going to make this work? She can’t hang out with her friends all the time, and get a job, and be with me at the same time. Is she willing to give up some of her ‘hanging out time’ with the guys so we can be together, or is that too much to ask?’ Even though she told herself this morning she wasn’t going to think about the future, that’s all she can think about as she broods at the picnic table and lets her food get cold.