Title: Truth and Consequences
Author: Lisa Marie
Email: lisamarie514msn.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: Starts of a romance, probably angst by the time it is done. Content: C/A
Summary: A sequel to Car Trouble. Angel is back from Hell and Cordy is now living with him at the Crawford Street Mansion while her parents are away. In this fic, the Scooby gang finds out that Angel is back, and are not happy about it. Spoilers: BtVS Season 3
Disclaimer: The characters in the Angelverse were created by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.
Distribution: Anyone who wants it
Feedback: Yes please it makes me type faster.
Part 1 – Number 2 Pencils for everyone
The school had finally settled down from the Band Candy incident and well, things were getting back to normal. To make up for the events of chocolate craziness most of the teachers had given pop quizzes and were extra strict about everything. As life often does go on, this sunny fall Saturday morning was when the SAT exam was given to seniors hoping to go to college. Most of the senior class of Sunnydale High had filtered into the Cafeteria, ready to be tested to see if they were fit for college. Many hoped to get scores good enough to get out of small town Sunnydale, others hoped to get out having an increased chance of surviving into their 20's. Sunnydale had a very high mortality rate.
Cordelia sat at a table in the front of the cafeteria next to a random girl who happened to have a last name in the C's. Most of the senior class was present, she turned and looked behind her and saw Xander, a couple tables back, and then Willow and finally Buffy toward the very back of the room. All here to take the entrance exam to life, the Scholastic Aptitude Test – SAT's even Harmony and Aura were there which honestly surprised Cordelia. Her two friends were beautiful but not exactly brainy. Probably here because I am here.
It was funny looking around the room, some people had a dozen pencils rubber banded together to make sure they didn't run out of lead. Others had one or two and a great big pink eraser. Cordy glanced back and saw that Xander had what looked to be a blue Bic pen in his hand. Cordy shook her head, stood up, picked up her extra pencil and walked over to Xander's table.
"Here, the pen won't work Xander." Cordelia said, taking the pen out of Xander's hand and replacing it with the pencil.
Xander looked up at her and smiled. This was as close as she had gotten to him in over a week. Something was definitely up with her; it was just a matter of time before he figured it out. Maybe it was just nerves before this exam...it was not the guy he had seen her riding in her car over a week ago, some older friend of her fathers...with money and good looks and...stop time to think about SAT type stuff, not that Cordy had found someone better.
"Miss Chase, if you would be kind enough to SIT DOWN, we can start." Principal Snyder said, as he walked into the cafeteria with a stack of exam booklets in his hands, followed by Ms Murphy, who was also going to be proctoring the exam.
"Pfft..." Cordy said under her breath, and then brightly continued "Of course Principal Snyder." She smiled at the little weasel man and then she turned back to Xander, "Good Luck Xan." She heard him mumble under his breath a quiet thank you then headed back to the front of the cafeteria to take her spot for the standardized test.
Ms. Murphy took attendance and checked off on a sheet on her clip board that all those who were supposed to be there were in their correct seats. Funny, Cordelia thought, lots of names missing from that list as compared to the original list I started kindergarten with...life on the Hellmouth.
Exam booklets were passed out and each of the Scooby gang was doing their own pre-exam prep ritual.
"The first part of the examination will cover Mathematics and will last 120 minutes..." Principal Snyder said reading from the pre-printed instructions.
Cordy wrote her name in bold script on the line on the booklet, always proud of how her name looked in print. I wonder if one of the questions will be 'What Southern California town has the most cemeteries per capita?' which of course could only be Sunnyhell.
"There will then be a 10 minute break and the second part of the exam, related to verbal skills will commence, lasting 110 minutes."
Xander was looking around the room at each of his girls, as he liked to think of them, and stopped at Willow...she is so going to get a perfect score.
"Please completely fill only one bubble for each of your answers...." Snyder continued.
Willow had her eyes closed for a brief moment, reciting the rules for iambic pentameter in her head and then moving on to the formula for circumference of a circle...I wonder how many digits we should carry Pi out to in our calculations...I wonder if Xander even knows that Pi is a number (3.14..) and not something you order at a diner.
"You may begin your test when I say start, and must put your pencils down when I call finish..." Snyder droned.
Buffy yawned, it had been a long night of patrol and lots of vamps slayed...I wish Angel could patrol with me...Stop he is gone...never coming back...and I am the one who did that...Stop...had to save the world.
"If I catch anyone cheating," Snyder looked directly at Buffy, his rodent eyes glaring at her, "I will personally take great pleasure in expelling you from this school." Oh it would be so great to expel Summers and not have to have her come back like the last time.
"You may start now." Snyder said, writing the time down on the roll-in whiteboard in big numbers. Next to it he wrote the word 'FINISH' with the time exactly 120 minutes later.
The sounds of exam booklets being opened and pencils starting to work out math problems was heard in the room. Occasionally there was a sigh or humph from a student, struggling to answer a question. The Scooby gang collectively was focused on answer questions and coloring in bubbles correctly.
...108 minutes after the start of the exam Willow closed her exam booklet and put down her pencil. She looked around the room, happy that her last name being towards the back of the alphabet afforded her with a view to see almost everyone, without getting caught by Principal Snyder. Xander's head was down and he was furiously scratching things out on the extra paper provided...coloring in bubbles then carefully erasing. Willow frowned, she had told him not to do that...Xander remember your first instinct is probably correct. She looked further up the room at Cordelia and saw that she was still working on her test booklet, but had an air of not being overly stressed. Cordelia epitomized confidence.
...109 minutes after the start of the exam
Buffy closed her test booklet and put down her pencil. Not so bad, at least I always have slaying as a career choice. I wonder if I will have time at the break for a snack
...112 minutes after the start of the exam
Cordelia rolled her shoulders and tried to release some of the tension that had built up over a week of getting ready for this exam. Math is hard, but I am smart...positive thoughts equal good scores...can't wait for the verbal, Cordelia Chase is a master at verbal...I wonder if sarcasm is a section?
...119 minutes and 45 seconds after the start of the exam
When in doubt, C is a good choice...or maybe B...well from here I will just alternate. Xander quickly colored in bubbles on his sheet, having noticed that time was running out and he was not quite done yet.
"Time...put your pencils down." Snyder's voice boomed over the sound of students writing. You could almost hear the pencils hitting the tops of the desks. Ahhh the sense of power, so good. "Close your exam books and pass them to the right." All the students did as instructed and exam books moved toward the end of the long tables, where Ms. Murphy walked down and picked them up. Some students had that test takers shell shocked look...and others eyes were just simply glazed over. "You now have 10 minutes for a break. Anyone not back in there seats in exactly 9 minutes and 55 seconds can forget about completing the exam."
Collectively the students stood and stretched. A few walked out of the room, but most stayed put...didn't want a chance of Snyder closing the doors a little early, just for fun.
On the front lawn of Sunnydale High...later that afternoon.
Oz sat on the bench waiting for Willow to come out. He had taken the SAT's last year, and had scored high enough to get into almost any school he wanted too. The only problem was he had failed to show up for gym class most of last year, and Snyder had held him back and not let him graduate. Oh well, it turned out for the best, as I get to see Willow a whole lot more, and wasn't really ready for the whole college scene...especially while trying to comprehend and control my new werewolf problem.
The front doors to the High School opened and students started pouring out. Oz smiled when he saw Willow and Buffy walking toward him, followed by Cordelia and Xander.
Willow smiled when she saw Oz and sat down on the bench next to him, letting out a loud sigh.
"What was the exam not challenging enough?" Oz teased Willow.
"Oh it was challenging alright, who cares if two trains are going in opposite directions and when they will get to their destination is one is going 45 miles per hour and the other is going 55 kilometers per 15 minutes." Xander said...expressing his frustration at the test taking experience.
"Yes those distance things are a challenge." Oz agreed with Xander.
"Oh I don't know, at least it wasn't a fight to the death, hey I wonder if a number 2 pencil would kill a vampire?" Buffy asked, glad herself the testing was done.
"Probably, but at least vampires don't need to take exams or go to college." Willow agreed, coming out of her funk as she talked with her friends. It was nice to talk about normal things like vampires again, rather than SAT's.
"Oh I don't know some are quite intelligent and would probably enjoy college." Cordelia said, thinking that given the amount that Angel read, he might enjoy taking a college literature class. Heck, given how old he was, he might have even known some of the classic writers!
"Cordy, are you serious, vampires, intelligent? Please all they are interested in is how quickly they can get there next meal." Xander said, disliking all things undead.
"No, Xander, Cordy's right, I mean Angel was an avid reader and he really liked art, I am sure he would have enjoyed college." Buffy said a little surprised that she could talk about Angel so easily. Maybe time does heal all wounds.
"Deadboy knew how to read...shocking I thought someone that old didn't have to know how to read." Xander said, hating Angel even though he was gone.
"XANDER!" Both Cordelia and Buffy said at the same moment, both coming to Angel's defense.
The two girls looked at each other a little surprised and then Cordelia quickly said, "I mean even though he is dead, it is not nice to call him Deadboy."
"Oh forgive me, maybe I should have referred to him as an avid reader who was also a homicidal maniac?" Xander was just getting warmed up.
"Now that is just not right, how many times did he save all our lives Xander, including yours?" Cordy asked, ready to defend Angel to the hilt, even though everyone surrounding her thought that he was more than dead, but gone from the earth.
"Yah, and how about all of the fun we had last spring with good old Deadboy, it was just a regular old party, hey lets talk to Miss Calendar and see what she thinks...oh no wait she is dead and Angel killed her." Xander argued fiercely.
"Xander that is enough." Willow said, noticing the hurt look on Buffy's face at them talking about Angel in such a negative way.
"What Willow, you're glad he is gone too, he did kill all your fish and threaten you on multiple occasions. I say it was a good thing that Buffy killed the bastard." Xander said, really angry that they were arguing over Angel.
"Just because he is more of a man than you will ever be Xander Harris..." Cordelia started...
"STOP IT ALL OF YOU" Buffy had enough of the talk of Angel, "He is gone, and I killed him, Xander drop it, can't you and Cordy find something else to bicker about." Buffy started crying and ran from the school. She couldn't talk about Angel anymore.
"See what you did Xander, you know Buffy is sensitive about Angel." Willow chastised the boy.
"Will, she needs to get over him, he is gone for good, and maybe it is time that she realizes it." Xander said in a quieter voice.
Oh boy, wait till they find out Angel is back. Cordelia thought.
"I better go apologize to her." Xander said, standing up and starting to run in the direction that Buffy ran. He didn't say goodbye to Cordelia, just left her standing there with Willow and Oz.
Cordy was a little sad that Xander just up and left, to go to Buffy's side and ignore their argument. Granted she was trying to find the right time to call it quits. And also the right time to break the news to the gang that Angel was not dead, or at least not gone.
"Cordy, Xander gets hot headed at times." Willow said, not liking that Cordy looked really sad at the argument with Xander.
"Yeah, that is something he is pretty good at." Cordelia admitted. She wanted to go, go home and relax and not think about big secrets or tests or anything to do with the Scooby gang. "Hey you want to join us, Oz was going to take me out for mochas after the test, you're more than welcome to come." Willow said, sensing that all was not right with Cordelia.
"No, thank you anyway, it has been a long day and I am ready to go home." Cordelia said, still thinking about how she was going to tell them all about Angel.
"Cordy, are you Bronzing it tonight, now that testing is done?" Oz asked, having quietly taken in the whole discussion and knowing that there was a subtext going on that he just had not translated yet.
"Yes, Harmony, Aura and the girls plan on being there around 9 pm. Are you playing?" Cordy asked, remembering that she at promised her old friends that they would go out and party tonight, since the tests were done.
"You bet, our first set starts at 10, so we will see you there?" Oz asked, his band, Dingoes Ate My Baby was not the greatest band in the world but they had a good sound and covered a lot of stuff well.
"Cool, see you there." Cordelia said, adjusting her purse strap and walking away from the witch and the werewolf.
