Xander was woken by a shake to his shoulder, he looked around sleepily til his eyes locked with the guy next to him. He pulled out his head phones to question him. "Yeah?''
"Hey, we we're partnered up to do a project together." The teen informed him.
Xander nodded to signify he understood before speaking. "What do we have to do for the project?"
"Present a country's economic growth on a poster, write an essay on it and make a food dish of the country's culture. I picked Germany." He explained.
"Ok, cool um when did you want to get started on it?" Xander asked.
"How about we do some separate research on our own today then tomorrow we'll see what each other has, it'll give me time to tell my coach that I might miss out on a few practices's."
"Sounds like a plan." Xander stated turning to get his stuff as the bell rang to signal class was dismissed.
"So who did you guys get paired up with?" He questioned looking to his two best friends, Willow and Oz.
"Mmm well I got Dru as my partner." Willow said in a hushed whisper.
"What?! Wills thats awesome you can totally seduce Dru into being your girlfriend." Xander exclaimed to a blushing Willow.
"I really don't think that's going to happen Xander." Willow told him biting her lip nervously.
"Why not? You had a crush on her since Freshman year, this could be your chance to get close to her." Oz spoke up contributing to the conversation.
"I don't know, so who did you get paired with Oz?" Willow asked trying to change the subject from herself.
"I got Riley." Oz said flippantly.
"Hah, so what, are you gonna try and get into his pants hmm Ozzy?" Xander had a shit eating grin on his face, he knew Oz wanted into those jock's pants.
"Maybe, if that's something he'd want." Oz responded back.
"Well he is smart, nice and very good looking, I think he'd be great for you Oz." Willow told him.
"Thanks. So who'd you get?" He looked to Xander.
"Angel." He said nonchalantly stuffing tater tots into his mouth not noticing the shared looks his friends gave to each other.
Xander was on one of the schools computers in the library writing down notes for his and Angel's project, not having one at his home because his parents couldn't afford it. This actually gave him a good excuse to stay away from home and avoid his drunken parents but he also knew he shouldn't stay long if he didn't want to deal with their crap about not being in time to do his chores and cook their dinner. He stayed only an hour and wrote down a couple things about Germany's economy hopefully Angel had more to go on and didn't get upset at his lack of help in the project.
Xander was at his locker taking out his english book for his next class when he heard someone call out his name, turning he noticed Angel walking towards him.
"Hey." He greeted finally reaching Xander.
"Hey, What's up?" Xander greeted back.
"I told my coach about our project and he really didn't approve of me skipping practice so I was wondering if we could go to your place and do the project."
"Um couldn't we do the project at your place?" Xander questioned nervously, he really didn't want to bring Angel over to his place.
"Can't my house is being remodeled, I'm staying at a friends house actually, so would it be alright if I come over today? I brought my laptop so we could get it done faster."
Xander had to think for a bit, today was Thursday so that means his parents will be out bowling and then to the bar afterwards so it should be safe having Angel over for a bit. "Ok thats fine."
"Alright see you after school." Angel waved goodbye heading off to a different direction towards his own class.
"Crap."
Xander was on the bleachers over looking the football field waiting for Angel to get done with practice. 'Angel didn't tell him he had to wait for him after his practice til lunch time, he felt like such a girl waiting bored out of his mind for his jock boyfriend to be done already and WHOA Angel is not his boyfriend!' He mentally freaked turning bright red just thinking it.
He frowned when he noticed a shadowed figure hovering above him.
"Hey dough-boy." Buffy the bitch sneered at him.
Xander sighed to himself, why couldn't this girl just leave others alone and mind her own business instead of just ruining people's day with her bad attitude.
"So Xander you homeless or something cause you always seem to wear the same clothes three days straight." Buffy asked giving him a dirty look.
Xander felt a little pang in his heart, she actually hit a sore spot with those words. Its not that he didn't wash his clothes regularly cause he did it was the fact that he couldn't afford any clothes new or used. He knew people knew that his family was poor but no one ever spoke of it out loud, so really he could just pretend that it was his own shameful secret that no one else knew about. Before he could say anything though the two heard the clanging of shoe on metal echo around them.
Angel was walking up the bleachers towards them.
"Hey Angel." Buffy breathed out no doubt thinking her voice came out alluring and sexy but instead sounded sickily.
"Hi Buffy." Angel acknowledged her without ever taking his eyes away from Xander. "So Xander, ready to get going?"
"Yeah definitely." Xander had grabbed his backpack to head down the bleachers with Angel.
"Wait Angel, Where are you going with Xander?" Buffy stopped them.
"Oh I'm going over to his place, we have a project to do together." Angel answered back.
"Mmm well don't let Xander have you do all the work, you know how much of a slacker he can be."
"Xander's going to be a great help. I bet he's got tons of ideas." Angel said while flashing a grin towards Xander.
"So I kinda expected you to be a bit longer what with you guys wanting to take showers after practice or something." Xander spoke out trying to make conversation on the way to his house.
"Well I just never really worked up a sweat before during practice or a game so um..." He trailed off.
"What, you sayin' you're just that good then?" Xander questioned with a grin.
"Heh yeah I guess." Angel gave a slight chuckle.
'Wow Angel was really attractive with those half smiles of his. He wonders why he never noticed before maybe Willow and Oz had a point about him being oblivious to things around him. Xander was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw his house coming into view.
They were in front of his door as Xander turned the knob praying to some higher entity that no one would be home. He was in luck when he found the kitchen and living room empty, even checking upstairs just to be sure. He came back down stairs to the sight of Angel already having his laptop and everything set up on their coffee table.
"Alright what should we get started on first, the essay or the poster?" Angel looked over to Xander for a suggestion.
"Let's start the poster first since it seems easier."
"Okay for the poster we need pictures of the country's flag maybe some printouts of their most popular sites." Angel explained to Xander.
It only took the boys an hour to complete their poster with Angel saying he'll print and paste the pictures back at his place. Once that was done they started discussing what kind of dish they could make, they both agreed on making a dessert dish when they we're interrupted by the jangling of keys and the slam of a door being closed. Xander's mother walked in. She took notice of Xander but not of the other teen in the room.
"Xander make me something to eat and bring it up to my room." His mother demanded, passing him by not looking to him at all.
Xander sighed getting up from the couch to the freezer in the kitchen and grabbing out a box to put it in the microwave for three minutes and forty five seconds. He grabbed the small meal walking to the living room heading for the stairs and giving Angel a sheepish smile as he saw him putting his things away.
Xander got to his mother's room putting down the food on her dresser to grab the tv table tray behind the door to set it up in front of the bed facing the tv. He then placed the plastic plate down for his mom. Dull eyes slowly gazed from the tv down to the food. She stood up fast causing the table tray along with the tv dinner plate to crash on the floor.
"What the hell is this? I wanted a home cooked meal not some tv dinner shit!" Xander felt the stinging pain, the suppressed tears welling up in the corners of his eyes from the hard slap his mother had delivered across his cheek.
"You're fuckin' lucky that you only got a tap from me, if your father was here to witness the kind of shit you tried to pull he'd beat you black and blue. Now go back down there and do it right this time and bring something to clean up this mess you made when you come back." She spat in his face before turning back to the tv.
"O-of course, be right back." Xander had to compose himself before going down the stairs, he remembered Angel was still here.
Making it downstairs he noticed Angel standing rigidly still with clenched fists. He went up to him tapping him on his shoulder.
"Hey um I've got things to do around the house and you probably need to get going so uh yeah I'll see you tomorrow." Xander said in a rush while pushing Angel out the door. He knew it was rude but he felt so ashamed and embarrassed already. He just needed to be alone right now and he really did need to get things done around the house before his dad gets home. When he goes to bed tonight, he's going to pretend this never happened, pretend his mother never hit him or yelled at him, pretend Angel never heard the yelling or slap he got, and pretend that he never got the beating he's going to get from his dad when he gets home because his mom told him about how Xander was being an unhelpful piece of shit not getting anything done right.