Chapter 36- The New Player
"Uh-Oh, we're in trouble," said Faith in a sing-song voice.
"We'll just have to ignore them," replied Buffy.
"Is that even possible?"
"I guess so."
"If Bobbles were here then she could scare them away," said Fern.
Anne disagreed with Fern, "No she couldn't."
"Yes she could," said Fern in a strong voice, trying to prove she was right.
Faith stuck her foot in it and surprise came her way when she asked, "Who's Bobbles?"
Fern replied in a proud, passionate way with, "My beautiful, talented and smart cat."
"Oh," Replied Buffy a little shocked and surprised by Fern's answer.
"Well anyways let's continue with the basic training shall we," said Faith, trying to move on from the cat story.
"First try a normal kick. Kick your right leg up in the air straight. Like this," said Buffy as she demonstrated how to do the kick to the girls.
Fern then randomly started talking about her brother, "You know what my brother says. He says that if trouble comes your way, you should fight back. You know, deal with the problem."
"That's some good advice Fern," answered Anne.
"Thanks," replied Fern, smiling.
"Well with this sort of trouble Fern we don't need to fight back," explained Faith.
Fern didn't interpret what Faith said the right way and took it the wrong way, "Well if you think I can't handle the fighting, I can. See watch what I do next. My brother taught me how to fight back."
Fern then did several kicks every where in the air and then fell over and got back up dusting herself off.
"See, that was easy. That's what my brother calls fighting back trouble. Now you girls try it," said Fern in an excited voice.
It was one of those awkward moments and Buffy didn't know what to answer with, "That was um good Fern but we need to keep practising to make it even better."
"Anne, you try and do a kick now," said Faith.
Anne slowly took a few steps backwards, straightened herself up, ran and did a kick straight in front of her and landed with two feet flat on the ground. Before Buffy or Faith could comment on Anne's kick Fern had to say her word first.
"I could 'so' do my kick better than that. I was just thinking about my Bobbles. Oh how much I miss him. Do you think they'll let me bring him next year? I will be older, more mature you know," Fern babbled.
"I'm sure you can do a better kick than last time. Why don't you have another try, over here," said Buffy trying to assure Fern that she thought Fern could do better kicks.
"Make sure you prepare the kick well, otherwise the whole kick won't turn out to your advantage. Stand up straight, put your right foot in front of you like this and kick your left foot up straight. Now I don't want a high kick or a low one, just one in between. Do you think you can do that?" asked Faith.
Fern knew she could do this kick because it sounded easy enough, "Ah, that's a breeze for me."
Fern walked over to the area where Buffy had told her to go. Fern did some quick warm-ups and she then walked over to where she would start her kick. Fern seemed a little nervous but tried her best not to show it. Fern slowly put her right foot in front of her. Under Fern's breath she mumbled, "I have to do this for Bobbles, Bobbles would be proud." As Fern kept her concentration under control she started to raise her left foot up for a perfect kick when she was rudely interrupted and fell over awkwardly.
"Loser, what do you call that?" shouted a girl around the same age as Fern.
"Now, now Libby you don't talk to someone like that but she is a loser," agreed Kat.
A young girl with a soft, quiet voice tried to add her own opinion, "I don't think she's loser material at all."
"Be quiet Rose! No one said you could speak," replied a new girl around the same age as Buffy.
"Mia's got the talk now. She's one of us," replied an old friend, Kendra.
Buffy walked over to Faith and whispered in her ear to ask her something.
"Who's the new player?"
"Not sure. Haven't seem her before but I've heard that there's a new girl in our year that was kicked out of her last camp."
"Do you think that girl is her?"
"She doesn't look like 'kicked-out-of-camp-material' but then again she is hanging out with Kat and Alyssa."
Buffy took a few steps away from Faith to stand back next to Anne who had a scared look on her face. While Buffy and Faith were talking, the others were still talking too.
"But Mia, that girl doesn't seem like a loser so why did Libby and Kat call her one?" asked Rose
"They called her a 'loser' because she is one. It's that simple," replied Mia.
Rose continued with her opinion, "Well I don't think she is one."
"Well no one cares what you think," replied Kat in a nasty voice.
Fern got up off the ground and walked over to Anne and Buffy. Fern then whispered into Anne's ear.
"I wish Bobbles was here," Fern then began to show tears coming from her eyes.
"We don't want any trouble okay, so just leave us alone," said Faith.
Sarcastically Kat responded with, "Ooooh, I'm scared. I'm shaking in my boots."
"We don't want any trouble either," Alyssa explained.
Faith wanted to get straight to the point and asked, "Then why are you here?"
"We are here because 'our' potentials need to train too. We can train anywhere we like and we pick here," informed Kat.
"But we are here," said Faith.
"I know but we want to be here instead so… move."
"No! You go train somewhere else on the field, there's plenty of room for the both of us."
"No there isn't. Now move."
Faith looked back at Buffy. They both knew what they had to do and that was move out of their way to avoid any more trouble.
Faith walked over to where Buffy was and they took their potentials over to another corner of the field. Faith and Buffy sat down and stared at each other in silence. Anne then tapped Buffy on the shoulder and she jumped.
"Oh, it's you," Buffy replied softly.
"Why are they still following us?" asked Anne.
"Who are you talking about?" asked Buffy confused.
"Buffy, she's talking about them," replied Faith pointing toward Kat and Alyssa's gang.
Buffy turned around and looked straight at Alyssa and asked, "Why are you following us?"
"Us, following you? Get out. We just decided that we like this area better than over here," answered Alyssa in a smart-ass voice.
Buffy and Faith got up off the ground, signalled to Fern and Anne that they were moving again and walked over to the forest where on the other side was the fake slayer camp.
"Why did we have to move for those girls?" asked Anne.
Buffy was getting annoyed with having to answer all these questions and wondered if when she first arrived here asked this many questions. Buffy then answered the question, "We moved because we don't want to fight with them any more."
Fern wasn't sure if Buffy and Faith could see this but she went ahead and told them, "You can't let them walk all over you, you know."
"We know," replied both Buffy and Faith.
"Remember the good old days…" asked Buffy.
"Huh?! What good old days?" asked Faith, confused.
"True, we never 'really' had them. I thought this year would be different. We'd eventually get those good memories except we're stuck with this."
"We never really get to talk you know. I hardly know anything about you and your family and it's really strange because you're my best friend Buffy."
"I know what you mean. I feel the same way. I know hardly anything about you. Later on we have to make time to talk. Maybe sometime in the holidays you could come visit me. I have to only spend four hours in a car back home so your trip to Sunnydale wouldn't be that long, would it?"
"I catch a plane dude."
"Huh?!"
"I mean I have to catch a plane to camp every year. I live in Boston B. That just goes to show how much we really do know about each other."
"I guess it will be hard for us to visit each other then. How can your family afford the flight every year?"
"They just somehow do, my mum …she...she works a lot so she earns a bit of money. Enough to feed the family and provide a roof over us I guess."
"Wasn't there like camps closer to your home town?"
"Yeah, probably but I got sent here. I don't ask questions I just do what I'm told."
Laughing, Buffy said, "Well I haven't seen that Faith at camp have I?"
"Well no, but that's different."
Meanwhile while Buffy and Faith had been talking, Fern and Anne had gone over to near the forest and were playing a quick game of hide and seek when Fern had noticed something on the other side of the forest and called Anne over to look at it. They could see all these young girls just like them training in a small field. The girls both looked at each other noticing that the young girls through the forest were better fighters than themselves.
They walked out of the forest of trees back towards the other field running. Then they both lined up straight like the girls they saw. They pointed their right feet in front of them and stepped out on their right feet kicking up a straight left leg in the air. They did it again, except this time stepping out on the left feet and kicking with their right. As they placed their right feet on the ground they turned around to face each other and smiled. They both had accomplished something new together.
"Buffy!" yelled out Anne.
"Faith! Come here quick!" yelled Fern.
"What?" asked Buffy.
"Fern and I just did two straight kicks in a row," Anne replied in a hyper, excited voice.
"Really?" asked Buffy who sounded surprised.
"Yep!" Anne and Fern both answered.
"Well then, let's see these kicks then girls," said Faith.
Fern and Anne who were excited ran over to an open space and lined up, counted to three and did as many straight kicks as they could do. They did up to five kicks in a row and after they finished Buffy and Faith clapped and were shocked at how they learnt so quickly.
"How did you girls all of a sudden know how to do kicks that well?" asked Buffy.
"It's a secret," replied Anne.
"It's our secret," said Fern who then smiled.
Anne and Fern both then giggled and ran off together and fell over onto the ground and laughed.
"You see, we never got to do that," Buffy explained.
"Tear," replied Faith making a tear gesture.
"You know what I'm thinking?" asked Buffy turning to look at Faith.
"Yep. The hell with it, let's do it," answered Faith.
Buffy and Faith run off towards where Anne and Fern were on the ground. They fell onto the ground next to them laughing. It was their first memory of a good old time together.
Not to spoil another Buffy and Faith moment or anything but they were interrupted by someone.
"Buffy Summers, please come with me to Quentin Travers office. There's someone on the phone for you," instructed Mrs. Post.