A/N : Apologies for the quality of the previous chapter with regard to spelling, etc. I seem to have posted the un-beta-ed version and now cannot find a beta-ed version. Eventually I will get it fixed! In the meantime, here's the latest...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 11

Buffy wasn't sure where this morning's confidence had come from. She guessed it was one of those mind over matter situations. If she told herself that nothing was going to bother her today then nothing would, and so far it seemed to be working. Her Mom had arrived home late last night and immediately asked how the competition went on Saturday. Without tears or tantrums, Buffy explained what Cordelia had done and how mad that had made her. She never mentioned Faith or Spike, she told herself she didn't have time to let them get to her, after all she was Captain of the Sunnydale Razorbacks cheerleading squad, the very same squad that had to come up with a new, fresh, innovative routine and learn it all perfectly in just a few short weeks. That had to be her priority right now, nothing and no-one else would be getting in her way any time soon.

Joyce pulled the car up outside the school on Monday morning and wished her daughter a good day. Buffy took a deep breath as she got out of the car and faced the school building. No matter what happened she was going to smile and keep pushing through. She was stronger and smarter than people gave her credit for, and she would show them too.

Buffy immediately headed for the main notice-board and pinned up a sign, calling for an emergency meeting of the squad at lunch-time. She proceeded to tack similar notices in any other appropriate places, including the girls locker room, finishing up just before the bell rang for first period. She was happy to get to her first class of the day without running into either Faith or Spike, but when she did have to see them she would deal, at least, that's what she told herself.

Buffy took a deep breath and pushed open the doors to the gym. She'd been standing out there for the past five minutes, watching her squad sitting up on the bleachers, talking animatedly about one thing or another. Buffy was sure she was one of the main topics of conversation today, and for more than one reason too - the copied routine, her break-up with Angel, the scene she and Faith had made at Regionals. Speaking of Faith, the brunette was right at the front of the group, by herself. Seemed she had been segregated yet again, and worse now than before after what she'd done. Buffy thought back to what Spike had yelled through her door on Saturday night and though she knew she shouldn't she felt a little bad for Faith.

"Buffy!" Harmony grinned as she ran down towards the other blonde, with Glory at her side.

"Angel told us everything" Glory smiled in a way that Buffy assumed was supposed to be friendly but in fact scared her a little, "We know you want us to take over, for a while at least"

"I don't care what Angel told you" Buffy shook her head, arms folded across her chest, "I'm still Captain of this squad and..."

"But you, y'know, resigned or whatever" Harmony snapped, "You can't just like un-resign"

"I never resigned, Harmony" Buffy explained, "Angel tried to do it for me, but he can't. I'm the only one who can give up my Captaincy and I don't want to"

"Well, maybe we want you to" Glory said smartly, "Maybe this squad doesn't want a Captain like you anymore"

"Is that how you feel?" Buffy checked, confidence waning just a little as her eyes swept over the assembled group of girls and boys, "Do you not want me to be Captain anymore?" she asked, "You're not answering me!" she pointed out, anger edging her voice.

"Cos we don't know what's happening, Buff" Xander told her carefully, "Everything's gone kinda unexplainy since Regionals" he shrugged, as Willow who sat beside him nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay" the Captain nodded, "You want an explanation, then here it is" she began, encouraging Harmony and Glory to sit down again which they reluctantly did, "Seems our wonderful ex-Captain, Miss Chase, decided she wanted some praise for her new school, and the only way she felt she could get it was to screw us over" she explained, "Now we could get mad about it, but honestly, there's no point. Getting mad about a situation doesn't change the fact that you find yourself in it, it doesn't change the fact that somebody did something wrong and it hurt you" she said, looking more so at Faith than anybody else, her meaning not lost on the brunette who couldn't meet her friends gaze.

"So, she gets away with it?" Willow asked cautiously, glad when Buffy shook her head.

"No, she doesn't, Will" the blonde assured her, "Cordelia thinks she's a winner because she made us a look a little stupid at Regionals, but at Nationals, we're going to slay the Hyperion Hornets with our new routine" she smiled.

"New routine?!" Harmony and Glory squeaked in unison.

"No, no way!" the latter said, shaking her head wildly, "There is no way we can learn a whole new routine by Nationals, it'd be like cheer-suicide"

"That is so true" Harmony agreed, looking annoyed, "They should change their routine, not us!"

"Chances are they'll have to change theirs too" Buffy pointed out to her, "The judges were not happy about us having the same performance, they blamed both squads, we both have to change. If we go to Nationals with this routine we'll be disqualified before we even start"

"So we forfeit this year" Glory shrugged, "There's no way in hell we can pull this off"

"Put a sock in it, Blondie, you're drivin' me nuts!" Faith yelled suddenly, "Have a little confidence in your team, okay?"

"Ooh, Harley Girl has an opinion on cheerleading now?" Glory asked with a look, "Weird since she's only been on the squad like five minutes, and is the weakest link we have"

"Shut up, both of you!" Buffy commanded when the two looked like they were seconds away from trading blows, "We need everybody, and we're all going to have to work hard if we're going to pull this off" she told them, "I know it won't be easy, I know it's not an ideal situation but we could do this, I believe we could win Nationals" she said, looking around the whole crowd, "I guess the real question now is, who's with me?"

There was silence for a few moments as the squad looked to each other, hoping somebody else would answer first. Nobody was particularly surprised when Faith got to her feet looking as if she was going to walk out.

"I ain't afraid of hard work" she shrugged, moving to stand beside Buffy, "I believe in this squad too" she admitted, "And yeah, okay, so I never cheered before I came to Sunnydale, I ain't no expert, I know that, but I think we're damn good. I think we can pull this off"

"Me too" Xander smiled as he stood up.

"And me" Willow agreed, the next to get to her feet.

Before Buffy had a chance to react she found her whole squad was on their feet, all but Harmony and Glory.

"C'mon, girls" she said with a smile she couldn't hide, "You know we can't do this without you"

The pair glanced at each other and then sighed in unison.

"That is true" Harmony nodded.

"Fine, we're in" Glory agreed and Buffy grinned, pleased to have at least got the support of her team back. That was one less thing to worry about.

"Yo, B" Faith called as the squad filtered out of the gym towards the end of lunch.

Though everybody had been involved in the discussions about the new routine, Faith and Buffy had yet to have a proper one-on-one conversation since Saturday at Regionals, and even then that really had been more of a raving argument than a real talk.

"Faith" the blonde greeted her supposed friend coolly as they stood facing each other in the halls, Buffy with her arms folded over her chest, already looking more than a little annoyed.

"Look, B, I just wanted to say, I'm totally behind you on the whole new routine thing, okay?" the brunette explained.

"Thanks" Buffy nodded once, "but you said that already" she reminded her as she turned to walk away.

"So that's it, huh?" Faith called as she hurried to catch up with her, "You find out me and my idiot brother made some bet about you and now you're just never gonna talk to either of us again?"

"I have to talk to you" Buffy sighed, "You for cheerleading, Spike in class. I know I can't avoid it" she said as they stopped walking by the lockers and turned to face each other again, "but I don't have to like either of you"

With that Buffy walked away, leaving Faith behind, staring after her, kicking herself for losing the first good friend she'd had in years, and over something so stupid as a bet.

"Hello, luv" Spike smiled at Buffy as she came into Biology class at the end of the day, his attempt at a grin fading when he realised she was not at all pleased to see him. Of course he hadn't really expected her to walk in and snog his face off, or tell him how wonderful he was. She knew the truth now, that this situation had all started as a stupid bet. What she didn't know of course was that his feelings, however faked to begin with, were as real now as any feelings he'd ever had for anyone.

"Spike" she greeted him as coolly as she had Faith. Having to sit beside him each day in class was going to be awkward if she was refusing to talk to him, so instead she had decided she could be civil if he could, and that was that.

"I wanted a chance to talk to you, pet, I..." he began, but she interrupted swiftly.

"We don't have anything to talk about, Spike" she told him, keeping her eyes forward at all times, "You were playing me for a bet, it's sick and disgusting, but it's true" she said simply, "Now I know about it and it's over, we don't need to talk about it anymore"

"Yeah, but..." Spike tried again, but she still wouldn't hear his excuses.

"We don't need to talk about it anymore" she repeated, "Whatever either of us thought the other felt, we were wrong. So it's done with, okay?" she said, sparing him a glance.

Spike was prevented from answering her verbally as the teacher called the class to order. He simply nodded once, and Buffy averted her eyes back to the chalkboard. Though she seemed tough and resilient and completely calm on the outside, she only wished she really felt that way. On the inside, she was crying a river.

To Be Continued...