Asharah- Good idea! Snyder did do them a favor putting Buffy in Angel's group!

Allison117- Hmmm, who could Buffy's man on the inside be that tells her where Angel is with Darla?

Sassy.B93- Buffy and Angel are so cute! Thanks for the review!

I didn't get to write as much as I wanted to today before I have to leave for my trip tomorrow but I am still working on it.

Chapter 12: Sunnydale Zoo

Looking down at the Zoo map in her hands, Buffy walked along the paved path. She didn't know when exactly she was going to meet back up with Willow, but the redhead had been so excited to see the Zebra's for some unknown reason. Xander and Oz had gone with Willow, the two older boys were supposed to be chaperoning along with Angel but in normal Xander fashion, he seemed to be acting like a kid again. Looking up, Buffy saw four other students making their way towards her, she really didn't want to deal with Kyle and his three winged monkeys, Tor, Rhonda and Heidi.

"Oh, look." Kyle smiled. "It's Buffy and all of her friends."

Buffy smiled back at the dark-haired boy. At this point she had heard it all before and she wasn't bothered by what people at school said about her. "That's witty."

Angel turned around from where he was looking at the elephants, at the sound of Buffy's voice, he watched as the four other students walked up to her. He knew those kids had been giving other students a hard time but he didn't know if Buffy was friends with them.

"Do you ever wonder why nobody cool ever wants to hang out with you?" The blonde boy, Tor, asked with a smirk.

Buffy shrugged. "Just thankful."

Angel narrowed his eyes at the group of students, he didn't like the way they were forming a circle around Buffy. He started to walk towards the students.

"Were you this popular at your old school?" Rhonda asked, putting her hands into her back pockets of her jeans. "Before you got kicked out."

Buffy raised her eyebrows at the four teenagers, just as Angel walked up. "Is there a problem here?"

The five teenagers look at Angel, right before the four students started to walk away. "Preacher boy." Kyle rolled his eyes, as Tor glared at Buffy. "Careful, she might beat you up."

"Ignore them." Angel told her. "You okay?"

"Of course, I am." Buffy smiled at him, as they continued walking on the path Buffy had been taking. "It doesn't bother me."

"I have been chaperoning this trip for a couple years now." Angel looked from Buffy to the path. "It's always the same couple of students that cause issues."

"Oh, but this year, there is me." Buffy teased. "So, this trip is every year? You mean, I have the pleasure of doing it again next year?"

Angel nodded. "Maybe you will also get the pleasure of me being your chaperon again."

"That would definitely be a pleasure." Buffy smiled. She hoped by next year, he wouldn't just be her chaperone. "So, Oz said once you finish off this semester then you will be graduating?"

Angel nodded. "Which is why I have been so busy, I'm wrapping everything up." Angel stopped walking, causing Buffy to stop. "When did he tell you that?"

"A couple weeks ago, when I was staying at your house." Buffy shrugged. "I was going to ask you for a ride from the church to your house but you had already left, so Oz offered."

Angel smiled at her and started walking again. "And you guys talked about me?"

"Yeah." She smiled back at him. "Is that a problem?"

"It depends what the topic is." Angel teased.

"All good things." She turned to look at Angel. "So, once you graduate, what's next?"

Taking a deep breath, Angel looked down at the ground. "Working full time at Awaken, taking over the Youth Group from my mom…" He looked around at the other students and families at the Zoo. "I have this idea where in addition to Wednesday night groups for the teens, they could also have their own service just for them on Sunday's."

"Wow." Buffy smiled. She loved hearing him talk about what he had planned. "Is it weird that I like to hear about your plans? You have all these goals and you are making them happen. I'm really excited for you, Angel."

"What about you?" Angel wondered. "You said you don't want to be a lawyer anymore, so what do you want to do?"

"Don't I have like my whole senior year to think about that?" Buffy asked.

Angel shook his head. "Some people already have plans when they are Freshmen."

"You did, didn't you?" Buffy laughed.

Angel shrugged and then needed. "Okay, yeah. I did! I knew what I wanted to be at a young age though."

"I'm kind of leaning towards something." Buffy told him. "I just don't know what sort of education I would need for it."

"Well, what it is?" Angel asked. "Maybe I could help you."

"Thanks." Buffy smiled. "But, I kind of want to get someone opinion on it that has experience in it."

"Hey! Buffy!" Xander shouted as he and Willow ran up to her, Oz walking behind them.

"You missed it!" Willow smiled.

Angel shook his head, he really wanted to keep talking to Buffy alone.

"Missed what?" The blonde looked between her two friends and then to Oz, as he made it up to them.

"We just saw the Zebra's mating." Xander smiled, and looked to Willow. "Thank you, very exciting."

"Definitely interesting." Oz nodded.

Willow smiled excitedly. "It was like the Heimlich, with stripes!"

Buffy looked from her friends to Angel, and somberly replied. "And I missed it. Yet, somehow I'll find the courage to live on."

Buffy and Angel shared a small smile before they continued walking, with their friends in toe.

Willow brushed her long red hair behind her shoulder. "Where were you?"

Looking behind her then back to Willow, Buffy replied. "Uh, I was looking at the fishes."

"Was it cool?" Willow asked, still excited.

Buffy shrugged. "it was fishes."

"I'm feelin' that you're not in the field trip spirit here." Xander asked, motioning around with his hands.

"Well, it would…" Buffy trailed off and started over. "It's just at my old school, in LA, we used to do a Zoo trip every year too. It's the same old, same old."

"Buffy, this isn't just about seeing a bunch of animals." Xander said, looking from Buffy to Willow. "This is about not being in class."

"You're right." Buffy looked around the Zoo with a smile. "Suddenly, the animals look shiny and new."

Oz nodded. "Gotta have perspective."

"Except, Buffy would probably give up the animals to be in Dr. Gregory's class." Willow smiled at her blonde friend.

"You like Gregory?" Oz asked.

Buffy nodded but Willow answered for her. "He's one of the only teachers that doesn't think Buffy is a delinquent."

"Thank you for that, Willow." Buffy smiled.

"Angel likes Gregory too." Oz told the blonde.

Angel nodded. "Believe it or not, I was once upon a time bullied for being the Pastors kid, but Dr. Gregory reminded me that I needed to stay true to myself and everyone else's opinion didn't matter."

"You got bullied for being a Pastors kids? That's ridiculous!" Buffy rolled her eyes. "And instead of giving in to the bullying you decide to become a Pastor yourself?"

Angel nodded.

Buffy smiled, swaying closer to Angel and nudged him with her shoulder. "That's kind of hot!"

Willow's mouth dropped open in shock and both girls laughed.

"Speaking of your delinquent self…" Xander made a popping sound with his mouth. "What exactly did you do to get community service?"

Buffy stayed quiet for a moment as they walked, then took a deep breath. "Well, it seems to be making its way around school, so… I got in a fight."

"With a football player!" Willow jumped in.

"What!?" Xander exclaimed, stopping in his tracks. "A football player? How did you manage that? You're so little!"

"Xander." Buffy whispered, taking a step towards her dark-haired friend. "Haven't you heard, size doesn't matter."

"And it was Larry!" Willow shouted again.

Xander looked from Buffy to Willow and back to Buffy. "Larry? Larry Blaisdell, Larry?"

"What'd he do?" Oz ask, he knew how Larry was, it didn't surprise him at all that he would do something to someone that was finally willing to fight back.

"He grabbed my…" Buffy looked around at her three guy friends. "…assets."

Angel crossed his arms over his chest, looking around the area of the Zoo they were in, it was the only thing he could do to stop himself from saying or doing something he might regret.

"That pig!" Xander exclaimed.

"Totally!" Willow nodded. "and, and he was so embarrassed that Buffy beat him up that he started telling people it was another football player."

"Not just any football player." Buffy smiled sarcastically. "A beefy football player."

Oz let out a short laugh, Buffy was anything but beefy. "When is your community service over?"

"Officially, on Monday." The blonde answered. "I'm going to go in and help clean up after Sunday and then I'm done. It went fast, I can't believe it's already over."

"Man, that did go fast." Xander said sadly. "You are done with community service and we still aren't done with your basement. I blame Angel, he hasn't been helping."

Angel looked at Xander annoyed. "I have been busy with school!"

"Have you even asked Snitch if we could finish the basement?" Xander asked his long time friend.

Angel took a deep breath. "I will."

Buffy shook her head. "It's fine. I'm not in need of a game room."

"I said I would talk to him." Angel told her. "I will call him tonight."

"What are Kyle and his friends doing with Lance?" Willow asked, looking towards the Hyena House.

"Oh, playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse." Xander told her, watching Kyle and his friends laughing about something they had said to the boy with a sketch pad.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "What is it with those guys?"

"They're obnoxious." Willow offered.

Angel nodded. "Professionally."

"Well, every schools got them." Xander turned towards Buffy and Willow. "See, you start a new school, you get some desks, some black boards, and…" He motioned towards the four teens. "some mean kids."

"Yeah, well, I better extract Lance before…" Buffy started but Xander cut her off.

"I got this." Xander waved his hand. "This job doesn't actually require any violence and plus, I'm chaperone guy."

Buffy looked from Willow to Angel to Oz as Xander walked away. "I wasn't going to use violence." She called out to Xander. "I don't always handle things with violence." She turned to Willow. "Do I?"

"What's important is that you believe that." Willow smiled jokingly. "According to Faith, you were big on the violence."

Buffy pouted. "That was before!"

"Who is Faith?" Angel asked.

Buffy smiled at Angel. "My friend from LA, she had been staying with us. She came to town with Pike and his best friend, Benny, but after everything that happened with…" She trailed off, motioning to Angel. "I kind of went off on Pike again and I told them I was done with them and Faith actually left them and came back to my house with me. She's been there ever since."

"You would know that if you came over to help us." Oz teased him.

Angel looked up at the sky in defeat. "I will be there tomorrow, I promise."

"What about Darla?" Buffy asked, looking towards where Xander was still talking to Kyle and his friends.

Willow looked around panicked. "Who's Darla?"

Buffy turned to look at Willow, seriously. "The blonde."

"What?" She said to Buffy before turning to Angel. "Is she your girlfriend, Angel? Are you dating her?"

"He claims Bible Study." Buffy relied.

"Claims?" Angel said looking at Buffy.

Willow looked at her blonde friend, sadly. "What about you?"

Buffy shrugged. "That's what Giles is for."

"Giles Junior or Giles Senior?" Oz said with a small smile.

"I am still here if Buffy needs any help." Angel told them. "I'm just really focusing on Darla and Dru right now because…"

"Darla's a hussy." Oz finished.

"Hey now, Oz, you are a Christian." Buffy smiled. "No judging." Then she turned to Angel. "Is she a hussy, Angel?"

"She's…" Angel thought for a moment, not knowing how to word it. "She has given in to her… desires."

"I will admit, I also have those desires." Buffy said. Although, she has only had them for Angel. "But, marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adultery and all the sexually immoral."

Angel smiled brightly at Buffy. "Hebrews 13:4. It doesn't look like you need me, Buffy."

"Oh, I need you." Buffy smiled. "I need you for other things."