See disclaimers at the beginning…
***
At 3:15 the next afternoon, a frazzled Buffy finally made her way into the crowded campus bookstore. Sparing a quick glance at her watch, she mumbled a curse.
"Shit… I'm late! Cordy and Will are never going to let me hear the end of this."
Not spotting the familiar faces of her friends after a cursory scan of the crowd, she shifted the pile of folders and fliers in her arms and stretched to stand on her toes. Focused as she was on finding her friends, she never saw what hit her before she found herself on the ground, belongings scattered around her.
Slightly dazed from her unceremonious tumble, Buffy shook her head to clear it.
"As ucht De`!"
As the strange words broke through, she shook her head again.
'I must have bumped my head when I fell,' she thought, confused.
Turning to look at the current source of her confusion, she met the eyes of a clearly agitated dark haired young man.
"Huh?" she managed.
"Oh, man… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to barrel right over ya," he said as he began gathering her folders and the various flyers she had collected during her trek across campus throughout the day.
Flummoxed, Buffy merely continued to stare at him.
"Freshman, right?"
Finally coming out of her haze, she smiled at the stranger, "How did you guess?"
"Oh, well… That 'deer in the headlights' look, coupled with the armload of folders, and this," he supplied with a smile of his own, holding up her map of the UC Sunnydale campus.
She chuckled and continued gathering her belongings, "Ah, and here I was about to be impressed by your powers of perception."
Before he was able to formulate a response, another voice sounded from above them.
"A woman impressed with Doyle? It's a good thing I came along when I did- we can't just let you go and ruin his extraordinary streak, now can we?"
Reaching down with a smirk on his face, he introduced himself as he helped Buffy to her feet.
"Hi there. I'm Charles. It seems you've already met Doyle."
"Oh, hi, Charles. I'm Buffy."
After smoothing out her skirt with her free hand, she grinned as she accepted the rest of her belongings from the man she now knew as Doyle. "Thanks, Doyle."
"No problem, Buffy. It was nice, uh, running into…"
Before Doyle had a chance to finish his thought, Charles interrupted with, "Doyle, man. C'mon! You're gonna make us late and you know how much 'the Boss' hates that." Already turning and striding away from Buffy and a sheepish Doyle, he threw the rest of his statement over his shoulder with a wicked grin, " I'm not about to incur the wrath of that bitch so you can stand around here and flirt."
Shooting a look at Doyle, Buffy stated, "I think that was your cue to exit stage left."
Looking slightly uncomfortable, Doyle replied, "Yeah. He's a right tactless bastard, but I do have to go. It was really nice meeting you, Buffy." Hopefully, he added, " Perhaps we'll run into each other again sometime."
"As long as you don't mean that literally," she teased, "that would be nice, Doyle."
Smiling in earnest now, he nodded and then hurried off in the same direction Charles had gone.
Amused, Buffy shook her head before resuming her search for her friends.
In the throng of students, she caught sight of a shock of red hair. Heading in that direction and praying that it was Willow, she pushed her way through the masses.
As she approached the area in which she'd spotted the redhead, she chuckled upon hearing the unmistakable grumblings of Cordelia Chase.
"God! Would you just look at all these people! It's a bookstore, for goodness sake, not Neiman Marcus on the day after Thanksgiving!" Heaving a pained sigh and running a well-manicured hand through her long hair, she continued when she spotted Buffy, "Well, glad you decided to grace us with your presence, Buffy."
"And hello to you too, Cordy," Buffy bit back. As much as she liked her high school friend, she was always astounded by how snarky Cordelia could seem. With a tired smile she greeted her best friend and her taciturn boyfriend, "Hey, Will. Hey Oz. Sorry I'm late."
Oz merely nodded a greeting, while Willow bubbled excitedly, "Hi Buffy! Isn't this great?"
Surveying the throng surrounding them, she continued, "There's just so much going on here!"
"Yeah, almost too much," Cordelia grumbled, leafing through the fliers she had collected that day. "Have you ever seen so many fliers? I've got protest fliers for about ten different issues…"
"Oooh, yeah," Willow interrupted, "and I'm ready to be righteously angry about each and every one of them."
Barely sparing the enthusiastic girl a glare, Cordy continued on, "…religious fliers," she paused to remove those from her stack and toss them into a nearby trash bin, "and, my personal favorite, the party fliers! Free jello shots for freshman women at Alpha Delta on Thursday, all night Toga party at Epsilon Chi, and a mixer at Delta Psi Delta. Hmm… Oz, what do you know about any of these fraternities?"
"Already scouting for a rich boyfriend, Cordy?" Oz asked. Willow and Buffy chuckled at Cordy's glare.
"Hey now! You all know I'm not that shallow… anymore. I was just wondering which of these parties would be the best to go to." Turning to her blonde friend with a mischievous gleam in her eye, she continued, "What do you say, Buffy? Wanna hit a frat party with me?"
"Are you crazy, Cordy, or did you just forget what happened the last time I let you talk me into going to a frat party?" Buffy was incredulous. Glancing at the other students around them, she lowered her voice and leaned towards Cordy, "Do the phrases 'demon snake,' 'spiked punch,' and 'ritual sacrifice' ring any bells?"
"Buffy, look at all these fliers!" Cordy thrust a stack towards Buffy. "They can't ALL be fronts for demonic rituals! We need to have some fun, especially if the rest of this week goes the way today has gone!" Seeing Buffy's continued reluctance, she turned to her other friends for help.
"Oz, Willow, tell her! We're in college now. Frat parties are part of the experience!"
"Well, the Dingoes and I are playing at the Alpha Delt party this week. I'm pretty sure that's non-demony." Oz assured Buffy.
"Yeah, Buffy," Willow chimed in, "we'll all go! It'll be fun. Our first little Scooby adventure at college," she paused, "Well, as much as it can be a Scooby adventure without Xander."
At the mention of her absentee friend, her good mood crumbled just a bit. Looking to cheer her back up, Buffy quickly agreed to attend the party on Thursday.
"Speaking of Xand, when was the last time you heard anything from him?" Buffy asked.
"Graduation," Cordelia snorted, "I've had a blissfully Harris-free summer."
Rolling her eyes at the brunette, Willow added, "Not for a while, Buffy. As far as I know, he's still on his 'see all fifty states' road trip."
Lifting an eyebrow, Oz interrupted, "Uh, Willow? Baby, did you tell him about Hawaii?"
"He was so determined, I didn't have the heart."
"Well, I hope he gets back soon." Buffy stated with a smile, "It'd be fun to have the whole gang together, you know? We could all hang out, maybe bug our favorite 'man of leisure."
"Our favorite who," Cordelia was confused.
"She means Giles," Oz supplied.
"Yeah, man of leisure is like British for unemployed," Willow giggled. "Oh, Buffy, here!" She thrust an armload of books at her friend.
Struggling to balance her new load, Buffy frowned at her friend, "Uh, thanks, Will. What is all this?"
"Oh, it's all your books. Well, almost all anyway. We can't seem to find the psychology books we need. When I saw you were running late, I thought I'd grab your books too."
Buffy's frown quickly changed to a smile, "You're the best, Willow!" Her friend beamed back at her.
"Uh, let me be the one to interrupt your little love fest here," Cordy huffed, "What exactly kept you, Buffy? It's daylight, so we know it wasn't any of the undead…"
"Oh, uh… No undead," Buffy agreed, searching for the shelves near her for the missing psychology textbook. "I stopped off at my dorm and met my roommate, Kathy."
"Is she nice," Willow immediately asked, "I haven't met my roommate yet, but I've heard all these horror stories. I'm just hoping mine will be cool."
"Well," Buffy hedged, "I'm not sure cool is the right word. She's definitely perky, though." Still scanning the shelves, she continued, "I walked in and she had Celine Dion just blaring on the stereo." Oz grimaced at the mention of the diva, but Cordy jumped in to defend Kathy.
"Celine's not that bad."
"No," Buffy reluctantly agreed, "she's not that bad, but not only was that Titanic song on repeat so that I heard it seven times before I was able to escape; she's also put up a Celine poster! And it seems she's spent the day labeling everything in our fridge and creating a pretty elaborate phone log. I can already tell it's going to be a long year!"
Cordelia clucked sympathetically, "Sounds awful, Buffy. Plus, now you've got to go back to being secret identity girl again! How are you going to explain all those bloodstains on your clothes? I'm telling you, you should have just moved into the apartment with me. It's huge and since Grandpa's paying for everything, it's not like you couldn't afford it!"
"I'm sure it's not going to be that bad," Willow reassured, "It's just going to be an adjustment, Buffy." Oz nodded his agreement and continued searching.
"I hope you're right, Will, but I'm seriously considering taking Cordy up on her offer. Mom insists that living in the dorms is a 'wonderful part of the whole experience and it'll allow you to make wonderful new friends'," she parroted. "So, I'm stuck trying it for a little while. Um, guys?" Her friends all turned to look at her. "Are we even sure these books exist?"
Oz smirked, Cordelia shrugged, and Willow assured her, "Yep, I've seen them! 'Introduction to Psychology.' Big, blue…" she trailed off as something caught her eye. "Right up there!" She pointed excitedly at several copies of the elusive book on top of the bookcase.
"I'll get 'em," Buffy volunteered. Stretching on tiptoes again, she ventured, "You know, this store discriminates against short people."
"Hey, I bet there's a protest!" Willow chimed in, "Quick! Cordy! Check the fliers!"
Giggling a bit at her friend's humor, Buffy wobbled just a little and accidentally knocked the books off the shelf.
"Uh oh!" Hearing the groan that immediately followed the descent of the books, she and her friends peered timidly around the corner. Seeing the crouched figure stagger back, clutching at his head, she immediately launched into a string of apologies.
"Oh, ahh… Oh God! I'm so sorry!"
Shaking it off, the sandy haired man stood and looked at her, "I'm okay. It's okay. Well, that was bracing…" as if to clear his head, he shook it again.
Seeing he was hurt, Buffy winced, "I'm so…" She trailed off only to try again, "The books. They were just too high and then everything… Well, it was bad. I'm so sorry." She finished helplessly as she bent to retrieve the books.
"Here, let me give you a hand," he offered, bending back down to gather the books. Putting a few of the books on a lower shelf, he muttered, "Let's put a few of these down here." Glancing back up at Buffy and her friends, he attempted a joke, "So, uh, are you all taking Introductory Psych, or do you just want me dead?" Oz chuckled while Buffy, tongue-tied, fumbled for words.
"Uh-huh," blushing when she realized she sounded like an idiot, she pressed on, " Oh, I mean the first one."
With a sympathetic grin, the young man responded, "Well, you'll have a lot of fun. Professor Walsh--she's quite a character."
"So, you've taken it?" Willow queried.
"I'm a TA, I'll be helping the Professor out." He stopped and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he continued, "I've forgotten my manners in all the concussion... I'm Riley."
Stepping forward to offer her hand, Willow introduced herself, "Willow," turning to point at each friend in turn, she continued on, "and this is my friend Buffy, my boyfriend Oz, and Cordelia." Oz and Cordelia each offered Riley a smile.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, all of you."
"I'm nice to meet," Cordelia smirked. Buffy just shook her head and jabbed the brunette's side with her elbow.
"Ouch," Cordy hissed, "watch the strength, Slay-gal." Merely rolling her eyes, Buffy refocused her attention on the Willow's conversation with the TA.
"Hey, do you know if we're going to be studying 'Operant Conditioning' in the first semester? 'Cause I hear that's kinda Professor Walsh's specialty."
Giving the redhead a surprised look, Riley answered, "Absolutely. Do you know her treatise on Dietrick's work?"
"I know of it," Willow conceded.
"It's not in the syllabus, but it's a fascinating read... if you're in to that sort of thing. They have it here."
"Oh, where?"
He pointed to some shelves across the room before leading the group that way, "I'll show you. I don't meet that many freshmen that know that much about psychology."
Hearing this, Cordelia let out a groan. "Is he hitting on Willow?" she whispered incredulously, "Can he at least find an interesting topic to pick her up right in front of her boyfriend? Hey, wait! Oz is right here! How rude! Ballsy, but rude…" she prattled on.
"Sshh!" Buffy shushed her, "I don't think he was hitting on her, Cordy. This is college, I think this is what conversation is going to be like from now on." At the look of distress on Cordy's face, Buffy couldn't help but laugh. Taking pity on her friend, Buffy dragged her up the counter just in time to see Riley excuse himself and leave Willow and Oz by themselves.
***
TBC…
***
At 3:15 the next afternoon, a frazzled Buffy finally made her way into the crowded campus bookstore. Sparing a quick glance at her watch, she mumbled a curse.
"Shit… I'm late! Cordy and Will are never going to let me hear the end of this."
Not spotting the familiar faces of her friends after a cursory scan of the crowd, she shifted the pile of folders and fliers in her arms and stretched to stand on her toes. Focused as she was on finding her friends, she never saw what hit her before she found herself on the ground, belongings scattered around her.
Slightly dazed from her unceremonious tumble, Buffy shook her head to clear it.
"As ucht De`!"
As the strange words broke through, she shook her head again.
'I must have bumped my head when I fell,' she thought, confused.
Turning to look at the current source of her confusion, she met the eyes of a clearly agitated dark haired young man.
"Huh?" she managed.
"Oh, man… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to barrel right over ya," he said as he began gathering her folders and the various flyers she had collected during her trek across campus throughout the day.
Flummoxed, Buffy merely continued to stare at him.
"Freshman, right?"
Finally coming out of her haze, she smiled at the stranger, "How did you guess?"
"Oh, well… That 'deer in the headlights' look, coupled with the armload of folders, and this," he supplied with a smile of his own, holding up her map of the UC Sunnydale campus.
She chuckled and continued gathering her belongings, "Ah, and here I was about to be impressed by your powers of perception."
Before he was able to formulate a response, another voice sounded from above them.
"A woman impressed with Doyle? It's a good thing I came along when I did- we can't just let you go and ruin his extraordinary streak, now can we?"
Reaching down with a smirk on his face, he introduced himself as he helped Buffy to her feet.
"Hi there. I'm Charles. It seems you've already met Doyle."
"Oh, hi, Charles. I'm Buffy."
After smoothing out her skirt with her free hand, she grinned as she accepted the rest of her belongings from the man she now knew as Doyle. "Thanks, Doyle."
"No problem, Buffy. It was nice, uh, running into…"
Before Doyle had a chance to finish his thought, Charles interrupted with, "Doyle, man. C'mon! You're gonna make us late and you know how much 'the Boss' hates that." Already turning and striding away from Buffy and a sheepish Doyle, he threw the rest of his statement over his shoulder with a wicked grin, " I'm not about to incur the wrath of that bitch so you can stand around here and flirt."
Shooting a look at Doyle, Buffy stated, "I think that was your cue to exit stage left."
Looking slightly uncomfortable, Doyle replied, "Yeah. He's a right tactless bastard, but I do have to go. It was really nice meeting you, Buffy." Hopefully, he added, " Perhaps we'll run into each other again sometime."
"As long as you don't mean that literally," she teased, "that would be nice, Doyle."
Smiling in earnest now, he nodded and then hurried off in the same direction Charles had gone.
Amused, Buffy shook her head before resuming her search for her friends.
In the throng of students, she caught sight of a shock of red hair. Heading in that direction and praying that it was Willow, she pushed her way through the masses.
As she approached the area in which she'd spotted the redhead, she chuckled upon hearing the unmistakable grumblings of Cordelia Chase.
"God! Would you just look at all these people! It's a bookstore, for goodness sake, not Neiman Marcus on the day after Thanksgiving!" Heaving a pained sigh and running a well-manicured hand through her long hair, she continued when she spotted Buffy, "Well, glad you decided to grace us with your presence, Buffy."
"And hello to you too, Cordy," Buffy bit back. As much as she liked her high school friend, she was always astounded by how snarky Cordelia could seem. With a tired smile she greeted her best friend and her taciturn boyfriend, "Hey, Will. Hey Oz. Sorry I'm late."
Oz merely nodded a greeting, while Willow bubbled excitedly, "Hi Buffy! Isn't this great?"
Surveying the throng surrounding them, she continued, "There's just so much going on here!"
"Yeah, almost too much," Cordelia grumbled, leafing through the fliers she had collected that day. "Have you ever seen so many fliers? I've got protest fliers for about ten different issues…"
"Oooh, yeah," Willow interrupted, "and I'm ready to be righteously angry about each and every one of them."
Barely sparing the enthusiastic girl a glare, Cordy continued on, "…religious fliers," she paused to remove those from her stack and toss them into a nearby trash bin, "and, my personal favorite, the party fliers! Free jello shots for freshman women at Alpha Delta on Thursday, all night Toga party at Epsilon Chi, and a mixer at Delta Psi Delta. Hmm… Oz, what do you know about any of these fraternities?"
"Already scouting for a rich boyfriend, Cordy?" Oz asked. Willow and Buffy chuckled at Cordy's glare.
"Hey now! You all know I'm not that shallow… anymore. I was just wondering which of these parties would be the best to go to." Turning to her blonde friend with a mischievous gleam in her eye, she continued, "What do you say, Buffy? Wanna hit a frat party with me?"
"Are you crazy, Cordy, or did you just forget what happened the last time I let you talk me into going to a frat party?" Buffy was incredulous. Glancing at the other students around them, she lowered her voice and leaned towards Cordy, "Do the phrases 'demon snake,' 'spiked punch,' and 'ritual sacrifice' ring any bells?"
"Buffy, look at all these fliers!" Cordy thrust a stack towards Buffy. "They can't ALL be fronts for demonic rituals! We need to have some fun, especially if the rest of this week goes the way today has gone!" Seeing Buffy's continued reluctance, she turned to her other friends for help.
"Oz, Willow, tell her! We're in college now. Frat parties are part of the experience!"
"Well, the Dingoes and I are playing at the Alpha Delt party this week. I'm pretty sure that's non-demony." Oz assured Buffy.
"Yeah, Buffy," Willow chimed in, "we'll all go! It'll be fun. Our first little Scooby adventure at college," she paused, "Well, as much as it can be a Scooby adventure without Xander."
At the mention of her absentee friend, her good mood crumbled just a bit. Looking to cheer her back up, Buffy quickly agreed to attend the party on Thursday.
"Speaking of Xand, when was the last time you heard anything from him?" Buffy asked.
"Graduation," Cordelia snorted, "I've had a blissfully Harris-free summer."
Rolling her eyes at the brunette, Willow added, "Not for a while, Buffy. As far as I know, he's still on his 'see all fifty states' road trip."
Lifting an eyebrow, Oz interrupted, "Uh, Willow? Baby, did you tell him about Hawaii?"
"He was so determined, I didn't have the heart."
"Well, I hope he gets back soon." Buffy stated with a smile, "It'd be fun to have the whole gang together, you know? We could all hang out, maybe bug our favorite 'man of leisure."
"Our favorite who," Cordelia was confused.
"She means Giles," Oz supplied.
"Yeah, man of leisure is like British for unemployed," Willow giggled. "Oh, Buffy, here!" She thrust an armload of books at her friend.
Struggling to balance her new load, Buffy frowned at her friend, "Uh, thanks, Will. What is all this?"
"Oh, it's all your books. Well, almost all anyway. We can't seem to find the psychology books we need. When I saw you were running late, I thought I'd grab your books too."
Buffy's frown quickly changed to a smile, "You're the best, Willow!" Her friend beamed back at her.
"Uh, let me be the one to interrupt your little love fest here," Cordy huffed, "What exactly kept you, Buffy? It's daylight, so we know it wasn't any of the undead…"
"Oh, uh… No undead," Buffy agreed, searching for the shelves near her for the missing psychology textbook. "I stopped off at my dorm and met my roommate, Kathy."
"Is she nice," Willow immediately asked, "I haven't met my roommate yet, but I've heard all these horror stories. I'm just hoping mine will be cool."
"Well," Buffy hedged, "I'm not sure cool is the right word. She's definitely perky, though." Still scanning the shelves, she continued, "I walked in and she had Celine Dion just blaring on the stereo." Oz grimaced at the mention of the diva, but Cordy jumped in to defend Kathy.
"Celine's not that bad."
"No," Buffy reluctantly agreed, "she's not that bad, but not only was that Titanic song on repeat so that I heard it seven times before I was able to escape; she's also put up a Celine poster! And it seems she's spent the day labeling everything in our fridge and creating a pretty elaborate phone log. I can already tell it's going to be a long year!"
Cordelia clucked sympathetically, "Sounds awful, Buffy. Plus, now you've got to go back to being secret identity girl again! How are you going to explain all those bloodstains on your clothes? I'm telling you, you should have just moved into the apartment with me. It's huge and since Grandpa's paying for everything, it's not like you couldn't afford it!"
"I'm sure it's not going to be that bad," Willow reassured, "It's just going to be an adjustment, Buffy." Oz nodded his agreement and continued searching.
"I hope you're right, Will, but I'm seriously considering taking Cordy up on her offer. Mom insists that living in the dorms is a 'wonderful part of the whole experience and it'll allow you to make wonderful new friends'," she parroted. "So, I'm stuck trying it for a little while. Um, guys?" Her friends all turned to look at her. "Are we even sure these books exist?"
Oz smirked, Cordelia shrugged, and Willow assured her, "Yep, I've seen them! 'Introduction to Psychology.' Big, blue…" she trailed off as something caught her eye. "Right up there!" She pointed excitedly at several copies of the elusive book on top of the bookcase.
"I'll get 'em," Buffy volunteered. Stretching on tiptoes again, she ventured, "You know, this store discriminates against short people."
"Hey, I bet there's a protest!" Willow chimed in, "Quick! Cordy! Check the fliers!"
Giggling a bit at her friend's humor, Buffy wobbled just a little and accidentally knocked the books off the shelf.
"Uh oh!" Hearing the groan that immediately followed the descent of the books, she and her friends peered timidly around the corner. Seeing the crouched figure stagger back, clutching at his head, she immediately launched into a string of apologies.
"Oh, ahh… Oh God! I'm so sorry!"
Shaking it off, the sandy haired man stood and looked at her, "I'm okay. It's okay. Well, that was bracing…" as if to clear his head, he shook it again.
Seeing he was hurt, Buffy winced, "I'm so…" She trailed off only to try again, "The books. They were just too high and then everything… Well, it was bad. I'm so sorry." She finished helplessly as she bent to retrieve the books.
"Here, let me give you a hand," he offered, bending back down to gather the books. Putting a few of the books on a lower shelf, he muttered, "Let's put a few of these down here." Glancing back up at Buffy and her friends, he attempted a joke, "So, uh, are you all taking Introductory Psych, or do you just want me dead?" Oz chuckled while Buffy, tongue-tied, fumbled for words.
"Uh-huh," blushing when she realized she sounded like an idiot, she pressed on, " Oh, I mean the first one."
With a sympathetic grin, the young man responded, "Well, you'll have a lot of fun. Professor Walsh--she's quite a character."
"So, you've taken it?" Willow queried.
"I'm a TA, I'll be helping the Professor out." He stopped and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he continued, "I've forgotten my manners in all the concussion... I'm Riley."
Stepping forward to offer her hand, Willow introduced herself, "Willow," turning to point at each friend in turn, she continued on, "and this is my friend Buffy, my boyfriend Oz, and Cordelia." Oz and Cordelia each offered Riley a smile.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, all of you."
"I'm nice to meet," Cordelia smirked. Buffy just shook her head and jabbed the brunette's side with her elbow.
"Ouch," Cordy hissed, "watch the strength, Slay-gal." Merely rolling her eyes, Buffy refocused her attention on the Willow's conversation with the TA.
"Hey, do you know if we're going to be studying 'Operant Conditioning' in the first semester? 'Cause I hear that's kinda Professor Walsh's specialty."
Giving the redhead a surprised look, Riley answered, "Absolutely. Do you know her treatise on Dietrick's work?"
"I know of it," Willow conceded.
"It's not in the syllabus, but it's a fascinating read... if you're in to that sort of thing. They have it here."
"Oh, where?"
He pointed to some shelves across the room before leading the group that way, "I'll show you. I don't meet that many freshmen that know that much about psychology."
Hearing this, Cordelia let out a groan. "Is he hitting on Willow?" she whispered incredulously, "Can he at least find an interesting topic to pick her up right in front of her boyfriend? Hey, wait! Oz is right here! How rude! Ballsy, but rude…" she prattled on.
"Sshh!" Buffy shushed her, "I don't think he was hitting on her, Cordy. This is college, I think this is what conversation is going to be like from now on." At the look of distress on Cordy's face, Buffy couldn't help but laugh. Taking pity on her friend, Buffy dragged her up the counter just in time to see Riley excuse himself and leave Willow and Oz by themselves.
***
TBC…