Disclaimer: Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.
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Colleen |
The new slayer |
|
Jordan |
Psychic who receives The Visions |
|
Dawn |
The Key |
|
Aaron |
Currently exploring magicks |
*****
"Maybe we should try again?" Dawn suggested as her and Colleen were walking back to the locker room after gym to change. "I mean maybe she's ready to talk to us now?"
Colleen shook her head. "I didn't want to ask her the last time," she said as the walked into the locker room. "When Jordan and I talked to her she said that she would come to us when she was ready."
"I should have known," Dawn said. "I mean I should have realized that Holly was Gold Chick. When we were playing Ping-Pong the day that Martyr came to the school she got really weird right before it happened. I should have put two and two together."
"Jordan's even more convinced that he should have known," Colleen said. "He said he always got this weird vibe whenever he was around Holly and he also said he got a weird feeling from Gold Chick. He said they aren't the same feeling but that he should have put two and two together."
"I wonder how she always knows when we're in trouble." Dawn thought out loud. "Like I wonder if she has The Visions too. Or maybe she's psychic or something like Jordan."
Dawn and Colleen looked down the row of lockers towards Holly who was changing on the other side of the room. Holly made eye contact with them and Colleen gave her a smile and Dawn gave her a small wave. Holly quickly turned away. Dawn sighed.
"Don't worry," Colleen said. "I think she'll come to us when she's ready."
*****
Colleen had started getting into the habit of waiting around by her locker for Mike at the end of the day. He lived not too far from her and they usually walked home together. She waited around a lot longer than usual today. Everyone else in the hall had pretty much already left. Colleen looked down at her watch. Mike was fifteen minutes late. Of course this wasn't a set event or anything. Maybe Mike just left earlier or something.
"Or maybe he left with another girl," Colleen asked herself as she walked down the hallway.
"And why would I do that?" Mike asked her as she rounded the corner.
"Mike?" Colleen said a little surprised. "Where were you? I was waiting for you."
"I know," Mike said. "I was waiting right here watching you."
"What?" Colleen said. "Why?"
"Don't worry," Mike said. "You passed my test."
"Your test?" Colleen asked skeptically.
Mike nodded and smiled at her. "I wanted to see if you would wait for me."
Colleen got annoyed. "That's horrible! I can't believe you did that to me."
"I just wanted to see if you would wait for me as long as I waited for you," Mike said with another one of his smiles. Colleen wished his perfect teeth didn't have such a powerful mental hold on her. Right before he flashed her his teeth she was getting ready to kick him in the balls. "Last week when you left early I waited for you for fifteen minutes. You beat me though. You gave me twenty."
"I can't believe you!" Colleen said, although she wasn't really mad at him anymore. "I hate you," she said, but couldn't stop herself from smiling.
"I hope you really don't mean that," Mike said. "Because I was hoping we could go to the movies tonight."
Colleen was still trying to pretend that she was mad at Mike. "Well I don't know," Colleen said. "I might have other plans."
"I'll tell you a secret," Mike said. He then grabbed her by the hips and leaned in close to Colleen so that his mouth was right next to her ear. "I was going to ask if I could be your boyfriend tonight."
Colleen didn't know what to say to that. Mike just smiled at her and grabbed her hand as he began to walk away. She started following him wants he was a few steps ahead of her.
"I hope to God I can get the others to cover for me tonight," Colleen thought to herself as she walked home with Mike, still holding hands.
*****
"I'll call you guys later," Jordan said as he broke off from Aaron and Dawn.
"Where are you going?" Aaron asked. "That's not where your house is."
"No," Jordan admitted, "But it's where Holly lives."
Dawn frowned. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Jordan nodded. "I don't think it's a bad idea. I'm just going to see if she wants to talk. I'll come over to Aaron's after I'm done. I'll tell you how it went."
"OK," Aaron said. "Don't get your hopes up though."
"I won't," Jordan said. With that he started walking down the street. He looked up Holly's address three days ago but he decided that today was the day that he should try to talk to her. It had been a week since they found out that Holly was Gold Chick. Since then the only thing that she had said to any of them was that she would come to them when she was ready, which was the same thing she said the night they found out.
Jordan wasn't sure what made him decide it, but he decided that now was the time that Holly would be ready. He was starting to get the feeling that her excuse was nothing more than that. An excuse.
Jordan reached Holly's house and double checked that he was at the right place. He gathered all his courage but it wasn't enough to ring the doorbell, so instead he used his telekinesis to push the button in. It took a few moments, but soon he found himself face to face with Holly Nils. She frowned at him.
"What are you doing here?" She asked him.
"I came to talk," Jordan answered.
"I told you guys already," Holly started, "I'll come to-"
Jordan interrupted her. "I'm not buying it. I think you're just trying to make excuses and if we wait till you're ready that when're all going to be dead, whether it's from natural causes or from demon attacks."
Holly looked at him with a little bit of frustration in her eyes. "Jordan-"
Jordan interrupted her again. "I just want to talk to you. Can I please come in?"
"No," Holly said, but then stepped outside. "My mom just got home from work and she's sleeping."
"Well then would you come for a walk with me?" Jordan asked her. Again she hesitated and looked back at her house. "It'll be really quick," he promised her.
Holly sighed. "Fine," she said. Jordan smiled and they started talking. "So where are we going?" She asked him.
"To talk to some friends," Jordan told her with a grin.
*****
"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to," Dawn explained. "But if you want to we'd really like to know." Aaron and Dawn, after getting over their surprise to see Holly at Aaron's door, and helped Jordan tell her the story of everything that had happened this year. They wanted to be as open and honest as possible to make sure Holly knew that she could trust them.
"Well…um," Holly mumbled. "There's a lot to tell. What do you want to know?" Holly looked really nervous. It didn't look like she really wanted to tell them at all. But Holly knew that wasn't entirely true. She knew that deep down that all she has wanted her entire life was to just tell someone. But she would never be able to tell them whole truth.
"What kind of demon are you?" Aaron asked. "I mean, you are part demon aren't you?"
"It's called a Sellar Demon," Holly said. She knew she had to keep her emotions in check or else everything would just come pouring out. "My father was a Sellar Demon and my mother is human."
"What all can you do?" Aaron asked. "What kind of powers does it give you?"
Holly looked more and more nervous and yet at the same time she was more and more ready to just tell them everything. She just wanted to tell anyone everything. "Basically just super strength. That and the gold skin that makes me pretty invulnerable too."
"When did you find all this out?" Jordan asked. "Have you known your whole life?"
"Yeah," Holly said, instantly deciding that she didn't want to tell them everything after all. "I've known pretty much forever."
Jordan, Aaron, and Dawn all noticed the quick way that she answered that question and the way that she seemed to want to move on. They decided that it would probably be best to respect that and move on.
"How did you always know where we were and that we needed help?" Jordan asked.
"I'm not sure," Holly said. "I think it's because of you really."
"Me?" Jordan asked, a little surprised.
"Yeah," Holly told him. "I think that maybe I was picking up on the visions that you were talking about. It's like every time that I knew that there was trouble going on it was like I was picking it up from someone else." Holly knew that there was more to the story than that but she didn't know how they would react. She didn't want to know how they would react.
"Maybe you have The Visions too?" Dawn suggested.
Holly shook her head. "No," she said. "I don't think that I do. I'm pretty sure I would know if they were my own visions."
"Holly," Jordan asked. "Do you have any plans for tonight?"
Holly wasn't expecting this. "Um," she began, "No not really. Why?"
"Well we were going to go on patrol because Colleen is out with Mike tonight," Jordan explained. Holly's expression changed slightly but it was unnoticeable. "Do you want to come with us? There haven't been any vampires all week but you could see how we work and stuff."
"It's mostly just ends up being a chance for us to talk and we end up going somewhere to hang out afterwards," Aaron explained.
"Yeah," Dawn said with a laugh. "We make so much noise that vampires know that we're coming from a mile away."
"I'm not sure," Holly said.
"Come on," Aaron said. "It'll be fun."
"Well," Holly said, thinking it over in her head. "I guess."
*****
What was it about Mike that whenever Colleen was with him that everything in the world just seemed to be perfect. Every single time that Colleen had gone out with Mike had seemed like the whole world had just fallen away and that the only thing that mattered anymore was just being together.
And now Mike wanted her to be his girlfriend. For any other girl in the world this could be the most perfect night of their lives. Colleen even let herself believe that everything would be great once they were officially together. But then reality sunk in. But then Colleen realized that she's not like every other girl on the planet.
If Colleen and Mike became official, then there would be much more commitment. Mike had understood when Colleen would have to flake when they were just casually dating. But what would happen if they were together? She wouldn't just be able to not show up or not call and get away with it. She had secrets that she had to keep. She wished that she could tell him her secrets, but she knew that she couldn't. Besides, what if he didn't understand? What if it turned him away from her if he knew?
"Penny for you thoughts," Mike said as he looked into Colleen's eyes. They were on the dance floor dancing to a perfect slow song.
"Do you have about a thousand pennies on you?" Colleen asked as she moved closer to him.
"No," Mike said. "But I have terrific credit."
Colleen smiled. "It's nothing," she lied. "I was just thinking about girl stuff." That was a horrible lie.
"Or were you thinking about what I said earlier?" Mike questioned her.
Colleen's face froze for a little bit "Yes," she admitted.
"You know I am serious right?" Mike said. "I would be the luckiest guy in the world if we were together."
Colleen had to laugh a little. "You would be the lucky one? You have an odd definition of lucky."
Mike softly grabbed Colleen by the chin and moved her face so she was looking up at him. He spoke just as softly as he held her and said "You are the most incredible girl that I have ever met in my entire life."
And that's when it happened. It was the moment that Colleen had imagined all of her life. Sure when she first imagined it happening it had been Larry Byrd but this was even more amazing then she had ever expected. It was her first kiss. It was her first kiss and it was with the most popular boy in school. For the first time since she had been with Mike she wasn't hoping that there would be girls watching her and jealous of her. She wanted this moment to just be for her.
When it was over, Colleen opened her eyes just to see Mike staring into hers. Colleen smiled and held Mike's body close to her own. She never wanted this moment to end. Mike leaned over to kiss her again and she felt a tingle go throughout her body. In the middle of the kiss she realized what the tingle was.
She opened her eyes and looked around, not breaking her kiss. She saw him out of the corner of her eye. He looked like he just stepped out of the 80's. He was taking some girl out into the alley with him. Although it killed her to do it she ended the kiss.
"Wait right here," she told Mike. "I'll be right back." Before Mike had a chance to argue Colleen was jogging to the table were she set her purse down, grabbed a stake from out of it and ran out into the alley.
"It's times like this that I wish I could stake them twice," Colleen said as the door shut behind her.
*****
"Well this had been a dead night for the undead," Aaron said as the finished walking through their third cemetery. "Kind of ironic if you think about it."
"So who's up for a little Bronze action?" Dawn said clapping her hands. "Maybe get a chance to embarrass Colleen in front of her new boyfriend."
"What?" Aaron asked. "Mike and Colleen are official?"
Dawn nodded with a huge grin. "Yep."
"Well that's just terrific," Aaron said. "Thanks for telling the rest of us. I'm going to go give her a piece of my mind."
Dawn, Aaron, and Jordan started walking in the direction of the Bronze but quickly stopped when they realized that Holly wasn't following them.
"Come one," Jordan said offering a smile. "It's kind of a tradition. And plus it'll give you a chance to talk to Colleen."
"And it's a good way to just hang out," Dawn pointed out.
"No thanks," Holly said. "Thank you very much for the offer but…no…"
With that Holly was off in the direction of her house. Jordan started to go off after her but Dawn grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him.
"We have to take this slow," Dawn said. "Tonight was good. We shouldn't ruin it."
Jordan nodded and watched Holly until she was out of sight.
"Come on," Aaron said as he started moving quickly in the direction of the Bronze. "We're going to miss our chance to ruin Colleen's perfect night."
*****
"Of all the nerve!" Colleen said as she punched the vampire in the back of the head while he was getting ready to bite the girl on the throat. She grabbed him by the back and threw him into a group of trash cans. "You can leave now," Colleen told the girl. "I'll handle this." The girl looked at the vampire and then back to Colleen. She ran away without another word.
"A 'thank you' would have been nice," Colleen said to herself as she went back to the vampire. She picked him up again and threw him into a dumpster. As the vampire stood back up Colleen gave him a couple quick punches to the face.
"I would like to draw this out," Colleen said as she threw the vampire once again. "But I really don't have the time. Trust me," she said as she pulled out her stake, "You got off easy tonight." She stuck the stake through the very confused vampire's heart. As the vampire turned into dust Colleen stood up, dusted herself off, and turned around to go back into the Bronze.
"Mike," Colleen said both surprised and horrified when she saw him standing in the alley holding her purse. By the expression on his face there was no trying to kid herself that Mike hadn't seen what had just happened.
"Was that a," Mike said very slowly, trying to pick his words carefully, "vampire?"
"Damnit," Aaron said as he, Jordan, and Dawn entered the alley from the Bronze. "I knew we were going to miss our chance."
"Yeah," Colleen said. "Maybe we should go back inside."
"And you kill vampires?" Mike said, taking a few steps towards her.
"Mike," Colleen began. "I'm sorry but-"
"I knew there was something special about you," Mike said as he once again leaned over and kissed Colleen.
Jordan wasn't sure how to react. Dawn felt herself smile.
"Well that was unexpected," Aaron said with a puzzled look on his face.
*****
Author's Note: Tell me what you think. I always appreciate feedback.