Xander's POV
It was 4th hour biology, Dr. Gregory was going on and on about insects and whatnot. I was trying to stay awake, but I found that nearly impossible. I think out of Me, Buffy, Willow and Cora, Willow was the only one that paid any attention at all in biology.
I laid my head down and fought to keep my eyes open, but I failed epically.
I was at the Bronze with Buffy, we were just talking, chilling, and playing pool; she was flirting with me. Suddenly a vampire jumped from the ceiling and picked Buffy up by the throat. "You've met your match slayer!" He said menacingly.
"Xander!" She choked, "Help me!" She said her face was full of fright.
"Put her down wise guy." I said threateningly.
I kicked him in the back and he dropped her. He turned around and gaped at me in terror.
"W-who are you?" He stuttered taking a step back. I smirked at him.
"I'm your worst nightmare." I said and picked him up by his throat with my left hand and with my right hand I skillfully stabbed my pool stick in his chest. He evaporated into dust.
"That'll teach him to mess with my girl." I said and twirled the stick around before setting it down.
Buffy stared at me in awe. "My hero." She whispered. I simply laughed and gave her a passionate kiss before walking up on the stage and taking a guitar. "This one's for you, baby." I said and pointed to Buffy who was standing directly in front of me.
"Xander…" Buffy whispered. "Xander…" I felt something hit my arm, a piece of paper.
I looked over to the desk beside me, where Buffy was sitting by Cora. Buffy had thrown a piece of paper at me.
"You're drooling…" She whispered.
"Wha-?" I began and then felt the side of my mouth, sure enough; there I was, slobbering like a baby. I quickly wiped my mouth and my face turned red. Buffy gave me a sympathetic smile, Cora was over there laughing.
Buffy glared at her and elbowed her. I rolled my eyes, those two were always fighting.
Then they started bickering.
"Miss Summers." Dr. Gregory said.
"Yes?" Buffy and Cora said at the same time.
"Buffy." He corrected himself.
Buffy's POV
Xander had been drooling all over his biology papers, I woke him up and smiled sympathetically, meanwhile my sister was over here laughing at him. I had elbowed her and told her to knock it off, but then Dr. Gregory called me out.
"Yes sir?" I said nervously.
"What is the answer to the question?" He asked, peering over his glasses.
"What question?" I asked confusedly.
Dr. Gregory sighed. I bit my lip, great, another teacher that is gonna hate my guts. I looked to Cora for help, but she hadn't been paying attention either and just shook her head and shrugged.
She's such a big help. I then saw Willow pointing at her nose and then at Xander.
"BO?" I asked aloud. The class erupted in laughter, including Cora, but when she saw my angry face she stopped.
"Thank god someone pointed that out." Sneered Blayne.
"Smelling." He said and sighed loudly.
"Is there anything else you would like to ask Miss Rosenburg? He asked. Just then the bell rang. I got up and began walking out of the classroom as fast as I could.
Dr. Gregory stopped me. Willow, Xander and Cora were waiting for me by the door, I waved them on.
"Yes, Dr. Gregory?" I asked timidly.
"I am aware of your past at your old school." He said.
I sighed and my face fell.
"Look, I know it doesn't look that good bu-" He stopped me.
"And I wanted to let you know that it doesn't bother me at all. Don't worry about those other teachers giving you a hard time, focus on your studies and you should be just fine." He said kindly with a smile. I laughed and smiled nervously back.
"Thanks, Dr. Gregory." I said happily. He nodded.
"I can tell a good kid when I see one." He said. I smiled widely before leaving.
I caught up with Cora, Willow, and Xander at lunch.
"How many detentions did you get?" Cora teased. I glared at her.
"None. Dr. Gregory likes me." I informed them. Willow raised an eyebrow, "I thought for sure he had it in for you." She said, obviously relieved I'd come out in one piece.
"Looks can be deceiving huh?" Xander said taking a bite out of his pizza. We all laughed.
"Well, at least you didn't get detention, mom wouldn't be happy." Cora stated, that was obvious.
I rolled my eyes at her, we continued eating and talking.
As the day came to an end and Cora and I went home, I got a call from Willow.
"Hello?" I asked, I was in my bedroom, Cora was in the shower.
"Hey, Buffy, you and Cora want to meet me and Xander at the Bronze tonight at 7?" She asked, it was 5:00 right now.
"Uhm… I can go, Cora's not feeling up to it." I lied. The truth was, I didn't want Cora to go, I don't like having to share friends with her all the time, I share everything else with her, at our old house we had to share a room.
She got out of the shower and I was getting dressed up.
I walked out of my room at around 6:30. She came out of her bedroom.
"Where are you going?" She asked curiously.
"The Bronze." I answered.
"Oh, cool. I'll come." She said and began to follow me downstairs.
"No!" I countered.
"What?" She asked taken aback.
"Uhm… You can't come." I said with a sigh.
"Why not?" She asked.
"Because Xander and Willow don't want you too." I said quickly. Her eyes suddenly grew wide, she looked hurt, and I knew it. I bit my lip and tried to keep myself from caving in.
"But…" She said. "I thought they liked me." She said quietly.
I was quiet for a moment, "They do…" I said.
"Then why don't they want me to go?" She asked sadly.
"Because… because you're annoying." I said, it was the only thing I could think of. She glared.
"Yeah, whatever…" She said and stomped into her room and slammed the door.
My mom yelled up the stairs.
"Everything all right up there girls?" She asked.
I closed my eyes and breathed in.
"Fine." I called down to her as I made my way down the stairs.
"Where are you going honey?" She asked.
"The Bronze." I answered.
"Did you see if your sister wanted to go?" She asked, I had to lie to my mom, that was difficult.
"Yeah, she's too tired." I answered quickly. My mom looked worried.
"Oh dear, I hope she's okay…" She said. I nodded quickly.
"She's fine… She's fine." I said.
Mom smiled. "Okay dear, well, have fun. Be home by midnight." She ordered. I smiled.
"Got it." I left and went to hang out with my friends, a sister free night, I was going to enjoy it.
Cora's POV
I couldn't believe it; my sister flaked out on me. Okay, maybe I could believe it. I thought Xander and Willow liked me; I was friends with them first. Lord knows what Buffy told them about me. I decided I'd go for a walk, I knew Buffy had probably told mom I wasn't feeling good or something, I thought about going down and telling mom the truth about Buffy not letting me go, but that'd only make Buffy mad at me, and she's not pleasant to be around when she's mad.
I ended up climbing out of the window, down the tree, and into the yard, and then I started walking to nowhere in particular. I just wanted to get away from here. Part of me wanted to walk away and never come back, that'd make Buffy and the others sorry for ditching me. I ended up walking past the school, through the park, and where did I end up at? The graveyard. I was hoping no vampires were out and about today.
"That'd make Buffy's day if I got eaten by a vampire, wouldn't it?" I said aloud to myself. I wasn't sure how long I had been out, but it felt like a long time, maybe an hour or so. I turned around, ready to start heading back, and I saw none other than Angel. I gasped in shock when I saw him.
"You scared me." I breathed out relieved when I saw it was him. He gave me a small smile.
"What are you doing out here by yourself all alone? Shouldn't you be with your sister and your friends?" He asked curiously.
I bit my lip and looked down. "They made it pretty clear they didn't want me around…" I muttered irritably.
He sighed, "Ahh… I see. Well, seeing as though you're here, I might as well tell you the same thing I told Buffy when I saw her… Watch your back, strange things are gonna be happening soon on the hellmouth. Beware of a guy with a fork." He warned.
I raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking abou-" I started but didn't finish my sentence. I heard something behind me, I whirled around, nothing was there, I turned back to face Angel, but he was gone. I scoffed.
"That guy is on the weird side." I said and shook my head and began to walk out of the graveyard.
"Not so fast." A voice said behind me, I turned around, and there was a male vampire and he looked hungry. I stared at him in fear.
"Oh boy…" I murmured to myself.
"I see you got dinner." Said another voice, this one was a girl, she stepped out from behind a tombstone.
"Uh… Hey guys…" I said with a small laugh. Maybe I could distract them? Why hadn't I taken a stake with me?
They started walking around me and taunting me.
"P-please, don't do this." I said trying to reason with them.
"Shut up." The male vampire hissed and punched me in the stomach.
"Aggh!" I screamed in pain as I knelt forward. They started laughing.
The girl kicked me in the back, causing me to fall face first onto the ground.
They were having a lot of fun beating me up. I punched the girl in the face, sending her flying backwards, but not for long, and she wasn't very happy either. She lunged at me and was about ready to lean in for the kill.
I whimpered. She grunted at me, disgusted. The male vampire smiled.
"Why the rush, don't you think we should savor the flavor?" He asked. Which really meant, don't you think we should torture her before killing her?
They kept on kicking and punching me, I tried fighting, but it was difficult. Then all of a sudden I heard a shout.
"Hey!" The voice said.
Buffy's POV
I had a lot of fun at the Bronze without my sister, I felt a bit bad though, I tried shrugging it off. I ran into Angel and he had leant me his coat, I thought that was really sweet. However he had warned me about some guy with a fork. He had been injured by him. It was weird. Whenever I got home at 11:00 I decided to try and talk to Cora. I knocked on her door and received no answer.
"Come on Cora, let me in." I said impatiently, finally I just walked in, and she was gone, the window was open. I closed my eyes and sighed, assuming she wasn't already dead, I was gonna kill her.
I went all over town looking for her, if mom found out that I hadn't let her come and she ran off because of that she'd kill me. I went to the graveyard, sure enough, there she was, being tormented by two vampires.
"HEY!" I shouted. They looked over to me.
"It's the slayer!" The guy hissed.
"Get the hell away from my sister." I said through clenched teeth as I grasped my stake.
"If you say so." The girl said as she threw Cora and she hit a tombstone.
I cringed, that looked painful, but I had other things to worry about right now.
"You shouldn't have done that." I said as I kicked her in the face, punched her and then dove my stake into her.
"Your turn." I said to the guy, he tried running, but I was too quick, I kicked him down and staked him in the chest. I ran over to Cora. She was conscious, but her head was bleeding a little bit. She wiped it off, she was pretty tough, we're both used to frequent injuries.
"What were you thinking?" I asked her angrily.
She stood up and glared at me. "I was thinking I had it under control." She lied. I scoffed at her.
"Oh yeah, if I hadn't got here they'd have torn you limb from limb." I said bitterly.
"You would've loved that wouldn't you have?" She asked me angrily.
"Sometimes." I said before thinking, as soon as I said it I regretted it, the look Cora gave me was horrible. I could tell I'd hurt her feelings with everything tonight.
"Cora, I didn't mean it." I tried. She shook her head.
"Save it. I know the only reason you ever let me tag along or even bother protecting me is because mom wants you too." She said tenderly.
"That is not true." I said defensively.
Cora kept on being rude towards me. I sighed and finally gave up. We walked home and ignored each other the rest of the night and most of the next day. I just hoped she wouldn't be hostile to Willow and Xander; that would cause a lot of problems, and I'd be held responsible.
Finally when 4th hour biology came around, Cora was still ignoring me, and Xander and Willow were trying to figure out why she was mad at them. Something I noticed in particular was that Dr. Gregory wasn't there.
Then Principal Flutie came in, he cleared his throat. "I regret having to tell all of you… Dr. Gregory has been missing since last night, until he is located you will have Miss French here as your substitute teacher." He explained grimly as Miss French, a beautiful younger woman stepped into the room. I gasped.
Everyone started whispering about what could've happened.
"Settle down everyone." Principal Flutie said and left, leaving us with Miss French. The boys immediately turned their attention towards her.
A guy named Blayne that Xander is always competing with whistled. Xander's jaw dropped and he was looking like a lovesick puppy. In fact, all the guys were looking at her like lovesick puppies.
Miss French peered at Blayne.
"Yes…" She looked at her clipboard. "Blayne?" She asked. He gulped.
"Oh, I was just wondering if you'd be picking up where Dr. Gregory left off." He asked.
She nodded. "Yes… I will." She said mysteriously and picked up a container holding a creepy bug. I called them stick bugs when I was younger, but they're really called praying mantises.
She went on to explain all about how the female praying mantises produce offspring and mate with male mantises. It was pretty gross.
Not to mention she got super defensive whenever I called them bug ugly. I shrugged it off and just wrote in my notebook and took notes the rest of the class period. Towards the end of class Miss French asked who would like to come and help her make duplicate praying mantises eggs after school.
Nearly all the boys raised their hands. The highest hands of all were Blayne and Xander's. I bit back laughter. Miss French pierced her lips.
"Hmmm..." She said trying to decide who to pick. She pointed at Blayne. "Come to my room after school." She said smiling. Blayne fist pumped the air. "Yes." He said smoothly. She then looked at Xander. "You can help me tomorrow." She told him. He drooled.
"Okayyy." He said dreamily. I exchanged glances with Willow who laughed. Cora just ignored it. I sighed and bit my lip. Her attitude was getting annoying.
Then we went to lunch. Cora avoided us the entire time. I was in the lunch line with Willow and Xander. Blayne passed by Xander and teased him about being 2nd on Miss French's list. He scoffed and tried to come up with something witty but failed.
We continued talking whenever Cordelia rushed past us carrying a piece of paper.
"I had my allergies list sent into the school today, I have to follow a certain diet." She said as if she were the most important person in the world. She went to the cabinet in the kitchen.
"ARGGGH!" She screamed when she opened it.
I gasped and ran over to her. There in the cabinet was Dr. Gregory, headless.
"Oh my god…" I whispered. Xander gagged and dropped his tray of food. Willow nearly fainted. Cordelia didn't look too good herself. After I got over the initial shock I went over to Cora who was outside eating by herself.
She looked like she was about to say something mean until she saw the look on my face.
"What's wrong?" She asked nervously.
"Dr. Gregory's dead… Cordelia just found his body. Headless." I gulped. She bit her lip and put down her food.
"Buff… I'm so sor-" She started to say.
"Save it." I said between clenched teeth. She was shocked at how harshly I said it.
"We're going to the library to talk to Giles about it." I said at last.
"So…?" She asked.
"So you're coming with us." I said and grabbed her arm. She knew I wasn't in the mood to argue so she just did what I said. We went to library and Xander and Willow were already there talking to Giles. I gulped and sat down. My eyes were tearing up again.
"Who would want to hurt Dr. Gregory?" Willow asked softly. Giles frowned.
"I… I don't know. He didn't have any enemies on the staff as far as I'm aware." He said looking troubled. "He was a good man… I liked him." He said sadly.
"Me too…" I said glumly. Xander sighed and sat down.
"Don't worry guys… We'll find out who did this." He said at last. Cora looked like she wanted to say something but was afraid.
"Could… Could it be the master?" She asked abruptly.
Giles weighed the options. "Possibly…" He said slowly. "But I don't see why the master would want to hurt Dr. Gregory." He said and bit his lip.
"The same reason he wants to hurt anyone." Xander said and stood up. "To make himself feel better." He said through clenched teeth. I saw Cora glance at me, I met her eyes. She quickly looked away. I could tell she was afraid.
"It could be something else…" I shrugged.
We all agreed to keep our eyes open.
The day came to an end and Cora and I went home, mom wasn't home, she had left a note saying she was going to the store.
I was extremely upset about what had happened. I was digging through my closet looking for something to wear. I was going to patrol tonight. "CORA!" I shouted angrily. She had been in my closet. I could tell because some of my stuff was on the floor, and my favorite blouse was missing!
I slammed the closet door shut and stomped to her room.
I didn't even knock, I just pushed it open. She was on her bed listening to the radio.
"What are you doing?" She asked sitting up. I glared and shut off the radio.
"Why the hell were you in my closet?" I asked through clenched teeth.
"I wasn't!" She said, looking honest, but I knew she was lying.
"You're a freaking liar!" I said and stepped closer to the bed.
She stood up and I was full of rage, I really was. I don't even know why.
"Buffy, I swear I didn't take anything!" She said in defense of herself.
"Yeah right…" I mumbled.
"Just get out of my room!" She ordered. I scoffed.
"Mom's not here to protect you right now!" I mocked her. She backed up against the wall.
I was about ready to tear into her.
"Leave me alone…" She said desperately. I raised my fist, suddenly I heard a door close. Mom was home.
"You're so dead." I said and pushed her onto the bed before running downstairs to tell on her.
"Mom… Mom… Cora stole my blou-" I stopped whenever I saw my mom. She was wearing the blouse. It wasn't Cora after all.
Cora had followed me downstairs. When she saw the blouse on mom, and then my face, she turned back and ran upstairs.
"Sorry I took your blouse Buffy, I had nothing to wear. I haven't had time to do my laundry yet." She explained. I stuttered.
"Oh... I-it's fine." I said distantly.
"What's wrong with your sister?" She asked as she began putting groceries away.
I shrugged and looked away. "No clue…" I muttered.
"I'll go see." I said quickly and went upstairs again and knocked on Cora's door.
"Cora… I'm sorry!" I said through the door. It wasn't the blouse that I was mad about. I was mad about Dr. Gregory's death, and I was taking it out on Cora. She ignored me. I sighed and just gave up. I went to the graveyard to patrol. I was in a gruesome fight with a vampire. This vampire wasn't just any vampire though. He had a claw where his right hand should've been. I remembered Angel's warning.
Was this the guy who he'd been talking about? I didn't have long to think about it, whenever I heard sirens and somebody scream "HEY!" it was the cops. The vampire ran off into the night. I didn't hesitate to get out of sight either.
After the police had gone I continued on my way through the graveyard. I leant up against the fence and saw Miss. French. She was carrying groceries and walking home. I thought it was kind of late for that, but I'm the girl who hangs out at graveyards every night.
The vampire snuck up behind her. I bit my lip and prepared to hop over the fence and take action if he tried something.
To my surprise when she turned around and glared at him he staggered backwards and ran away. She smirked and turned back and continued on her way. I gasped.
I ran home and climbed in through my window. I had to tell Cora. I opened her door without knocking. She was sitting there on the bed, still awake.
"Why can't you EVER knock?" She snapped at me. I shrugged and told her about Miss. French.
She stared at me. "So…?" She asked impatiently. I couldn't believe it, is she really that stupid?
"So…" I said more impatiently, "She's not human!" She sighed heavily.
"Yeah, whatever… it's late, you're overthinking, get out of my room and go to bed." She said and rolled over.
I was about to argue but then decided if I did we'd get into a fight and wake mom up.
The next day when I was headed for biology class Mr. Flutie stopped me.
"Yes?" I asked him.
"You saw the body?" He asked hastily.
''Uh… Yeah." I said hesitantly. What was this about?
"You have to heal!" He said and put his hand on my back and half escorted me half pushed me to the guidance counselor's office.
"Really, Principal Flutie… That's not necessary." I said with a small smile. "Uh… I'll be late for class." I said, it was the best excuse I could think of.
"Oh yes… very late!" He said. "You need to heal. If you ever… EVER need a hug I'm here for you! Well… of course not a real hug… we're not allowed to hug the students! But you know what I mean." We had reached the guidance counselors office.
"Sit!" He ordered.
"But…" I began, but he interrupted me.
"Sit. Heal. No discussion!" He said and walked off, in the guidance room I heard Cordelia already talking to the counselor going on about how she'd lost almost a whole pound since finding Dr. Gregory's body. She didn't seem to upset about it either, the whole loosing weight thing.
I couldn't help but laugh at her hopelessness. Finally whenever I was able to go back to class, it was 10 minutes until it was over, they were having a pop quiz I saw, from looking in the window. I saw Willow writing away, Xander daydreaming, and Cora looked like her head might explode from thinking.
Then, again, to my shock, Miss. French turned her head all the way around, I mean, all the way, like 180 degrees, to see who was at the door. I gasped and ducked out of the way. I bit my lip and practically ran to the library to see Giles.
"What is the rush?" He asked as I bolted in, he closed the book he was reading.
"We've got a problem…" I said and explained everything that had happened.
"Oh my… It sounds as if she's an insect." He said uncertainly.
Just then Cora and Willow came into the library.
I filled them in quickly.
"Hey, have you guys noticed that Blayne wasn't here today." Willow said. "He was supposed to work with Miss French after school!" She said worriedly.
I was busy reading. "That's right…" I said distractedly. Then I came upon it. "Praying Mantises can turn their heads 180 degrees!" I said abruptly.
Cora laughed. I stared at her.
"What?" She asked defensively.
"If she is a praying mantis then it is possible that she is responsible for Dr. Gregory's death, and she might have kidnapped Blayne!" I said irritably.
Willow suddenly went pale.
"What is it?" Giles asked her.
"Xander is supposed to work with her today after school!" She said standing up and began pacing.
"Don't worry, I'll warn him." I told her.
"Good luck with that." Cora encountered.
"Why?" I asked.
"Haven't you seen the way he looks at her?" She asked as if I should know what she was meaning.
Willow ignored all of us and began typing away on one of the computers, she had pulled up the school website.
"Blayne's parents reported that he never came home last night." She said absently. Cora looked worried, so did I and Giles.
Xander's POV
I was asked to stay after class for a moment to talk to Miss French.
"Oh, Xander…" She said sadly.
"I've done something really stupid." She said guiltily.
"What? You? Do something stupid? No." I said and shook my head.
She gave me a small smile.
"I forgot the ingredients for our experiment at my house… And I have a meeting in 30 minutes, so… If it's not too much trouble, I don't suppose you could come to my place tonight at say 7:30, we can work on the project there." She said and leant forward.
I could've swore my heart stopped, Miss. French was inviting me to her house. I just nodded.
"S-sounds good!" I said a little too enthusiastically. She smiled.
"Well, I'm going to have myself a little snack before I head off. I'll see you tonight." She said sexily.
I nodded again and walked out of the classroom dazed.
Buffy came running up from behind me after school.
"Xander!" She said. I turned around and smiled.
"Oh, hey Buffy." I greeted her.
"I need to talk to you." She said seriously.
"What's up?" I asked.
"It's about Miss. French." My eyes went groggy
"Yeah?" I asked. "She's great isn't she?" I said dreamily.
"Uh… No. In fact, she's not human." She said in a quick tone of voice.
"What do you mean she's not human?" I asked, I stopped walking and faced her.
"I mean she's a bug." She said and went on with some crazy story about how Miss French was a bug and was going to eat me and whatnot. I looked up.
"Wow…" I said angrily and faced her. "Wow…" I said again.
"What?" She asked.
"I can't believe this." I said.
"I know it's hard too, bu-" I stopped her.
"No. I'm not stupid Buffy! You're just jealous that I'm attracted to another woman other then you! You can't handle the fact that someone else, someone older, might actually like me!" I accused. She shook her head.
"Xander, no, that's not it…" She began, I stopped her.
"Just stop… I gotta go." I said, and walked away, disgusted.
I couldn't believe her. I was so mad, I couldn't even think straight.
Finally it was 7:00 and I headed to Miss. French's house. I got there, knocked on the door, she opened it and was wearing a very beautiful, short, black dress.
"Woah…" I whispered.
"Oh…" She said shyly as she let me in the house. "Is this too much, should I change?" She said blushing.
I smiled nervous, "Change? No. No, it's fine!" I said quickly.
She smiled. "Alright then, have a seat." She said gesturing me to the living room.
I walked in and sat down. "So, let's get started." I said clapping my hands on my knees, she was in a rather sexual position on the couch. She had a couple of wine glasses on the coffee table and a bottle of some type of drink.
There was a fire going in the fireplace. I shifted nervously.
"Xander… I don't know what it is, but I feel so connected to you." She said in a dreamy voice, she moved from her seat in the armchair to next to me on the couch.
"I feel the same for you." I said, I wasn't even thinking, all I knew was this was the moment I've been waiting for.
"Have you ever been with a girl?" She asked me.
"Oh, yeah… Tons of them." I said and started sweating, she gave me a strange look.
I sighed, "Yeah… No." I admitted. She giggled.
"I can tell." She said and gave me a kiss on the lips. I kissed back greatly, but then… I started thinking of Buffy.
"I love Buffy…" I murmured.
"Have a drink." She said and pushed the wine glass up to me. I smiled at her; took a few sips and nearly gagged. It tasted horrible. Suddenly the room was spinning. I looked at Miss. French, her hands were not hands anymore, they were claws!
"Wow… this drinks really getting to me…" I mutter incoherently, and then everything went blank.
I was out for I don't know how long, and when I woke up I was in a cage.
"What the…" I muttered and sat up, my head was killing me.
Someone was moaning in the cage next to me.
I went over there, and there was Blayne.
"Blayne?" I whispered, "What's going on?!" I asked him hurriedly.
"Xander, man, you gotta get me outta here!" He whined.
"What is going on!?" I repeated.
"It's Miss. French, she's a giant praying mantis! She's going to have us fertilize her eggs, and then… She's gonna mate with us, and rip our heads off in the process!" He said practically crying.
I pulled at my hair. I was so freaking stupid, this is what Buffy had been trying to warn me. I let out a fearful sigh.
"Don't worry." I said, trying to convince myself not to worry, "We're gonna get out of here!" I tried to reassure him.
I grabbed the bars between me and Blayne's cage and ripped it apart.
"Thanks, dude! Now I can get out of my cage." He said and crossed over. "Into yours!" He said, glaring. "What'd you do that for?" He asked.
"Weapon." I told him, just then Miss French, that giant, ugly bug, came towards us.
"Oh no… no no no no no…" Blayne was moaning, he grabbed me and buried his head in my shoulder, normally I'd have pushed him off, but I was so scared I did the same exact thing.
"Take him!" Blayne said pointing at me, he's the one who broke your bar!" Blayne said, throwing me under the bus.
"Thanks a lot man." I said, and slugged him in the shoulder.
I had to figure out a way to get us out of here, I just didn't know how.
Willow's POV
I was freaking out, Xander hadn't listened to Buffy so there was no telling where he was. Giles had called his friend who worked with praying mantises, his friend was psychotic and in a psych ward, but it was the only thing we had. After Giles got off the phone he came back and told us about the She Mantis.
"The she mantis lures in virgin men as her pray, she mates with them, and then ultimately kills them." He said and breathed out slowly.
I exchanged glances with Buffy and Cora.
"Well, Xander's not a virgin, he's probably, well, I bet… He's probably just…" Buffy stopped.
"Gonna die!" I finished for her, I ran to the phone and called his parents who said he was working on a project at his teachers house. I came back and told the others.
"What are we gonna do now?" Cora asked hesitantly.
"I don't know…" I said and sighed heavily.
"Buffy?" I asked her.
She bit her lip, "Giles, can you record a bat sonar? I know that the sound weakens the praying mantises. Cora, Willow and I will look up Miss French's information." She said going into command mode.
We discovered Miss French was born in like 1907, making her nearly 90 years old.
"She's extremely well preserved." Giles said as he finished up.
We all raced to Miss French's house.
A nice old lady opened the door.
"Is Natalie French here?" Buffy asked her hurriedly.
"Why yes, that's me dear." She said sweetly.
We all looked at each other. Buffy turned back to me and the others.
"She's not here!" She huffed. The REAL Miss French looked shocked.
"Yes I am, I'm right here!" She said nicely.
Cora sighed.
"Sorry, Miss French… We must've got the wrong address, thank you for your help." She said and we walked away.
"Now what?" I said close to tears.
Buffy decided to track down the vampire she saw flee from Miss. French, she beat him up and he showed us where her house was, after he showed us he tried to attack Buffy, she killed him gleefully.
She turned back to us. "Come on." She said and kicked the doors down.
We searched the house and came upon the basement.
"XANDER!" I shouted, seeing Miss. French hovering over him. He was tied up and she was about ready to mate with him.
She jerked her head towards us and hissed.
"Oh boy…" I muttered fearfully as she bounded towards me and Cora.
She picked Cora up with one of her claws, about ready to kill her, Buffy rolled underneath her and grabbed a can of insect repellent and sprayed Miss French in the eyes, she quickly dropped Cora, who rolled out of the way and stood up next to me.
"Time to finish you off!" Buffy said as she took out the recorder, she tried to turn it on to the bat sonar, but all we was a speech Giles was giving.
"GILES!" She shouted angrily, he was untying Xander.
"Wrong side!" He screamed back as he got the last knot and Xander was free.
"Ugghhh." Buffy groaned at him, that gave Miss French just enough time to knock the recorder out of her hands, it slid towards Giles who picked it up and turned the bat sonar on. This entire time Blayne was yelling "UNTIE ME UNTIE ME!" Finally I went over and helped him and let him out of the cage.
The bat sonar weakened the she mantis enough for Buffy to stab it with a stake, like 50 times.
She sighed relieved, we all did. "Xander." I mouthed and hugged him. He smiled.
"Thanks for saving me guys, and Buffy. I'm sorry I didn't believe you." He said gratefully. Then Xande took a bat and destroyed the rest of the she mantis eggs.
"My father is a lawyer…" Blayne told us, "If any of you speak a word about any of this to anyone, I will have you all arrested for the rest of your lives! Got it?" He said hatefully and left.
Xander rolled his eyes, we all just laughed, then we went our separate ways, I didn't know about the others but I was gonna sleep well tonight.
Buffy's POV
I was exhausted from the excitement, my sister and I went home and climbed through the window.
I exhaled and stopped her before she went to her own room.
"Buffy, please…" She said, she thought I was gonna lash out on her, I could tell.
I held my hand up to stop her.
"I wanted to thank you, we couldn't have done it without you… I'm sorry for taking my anger out on you." I said, this was one of the first times I'd apologized to her.
She shrugged. "It's what sisters do…" She said with a small smile.
She was right. We went to bed. The next day we all hung out at the Bronze, this time I let Cora come, while her, Xander, and Willow were all talking, I saw Angel, I tried to give him his coat back, but he declined it. I smiled and thanked him, and then he was gone.
The next day, when we had a new biology teacher, I saw Dr. Gregory's glasses lying on the floor. I frowned and picked them up, I looked at them for a good minute or so, I was going to miss him a lot. I placed them where they belonged in the closet of his room. Then I sat down next to my sister, and listened to the boring lecture our new teacher was giving us.
