Part 4

Buffy entered homeroom with a sense of apprehension. Not only did she not look forward to having her name called out, she also dreaded finding out if she had really said what she had to Angel. She knew she was thinking it, but if she really did say it...oh boy. Buffy found a seat near the back of the room next to a pleasant-looking red headed girl who was chatting in hushed tones with the guy sitting next to her. The guy had dyed hair and seemed to Buffy to be a rocker-type.

Upon noticing Buffy, Willow turned her attention away from her boyfriend and to the unfamiliar blonde girl sitting at the desk next to hers; the now-infamous 'new girl'.

"Hi, I'm Willow. Welcome to Sunnydale," she said cheerfully. "I think you're popular already; the whole grade's been talking about you and we still don't even know what your name is."

Buffy shrugged. "I got here a little bit later than I intended to so the only people I've actually met is Angel Ferguson...and, well, the principal. My name's Buffy," she shook hands with Willow nervously. This girl seemed nice enough...

"Willow Rosenberg," the teacher called out.

"Present," Willow replied. She turned back to Buffy and said, "Buffy, as in Summers?"

Buffy shifted in her chair. "Well..."

"Buffy Summers," the teacher said with a slight curiosity. The teacher was young—not as old as most of the faculty—and thus wasn't in the dark about...such things.

"Umm...present?" Buffy replied sheepishly. At that moment she wished the earth would open up and swallow her. But as luck had it, this was the kind of place where wishes didn't come true and didn't having people-eating classroom floors. Every person in the room turned to stare at her. There were also several gasps including one from Willow, who was shocked to find that she had talked to her favourite star in the whole wide world and not even realised it.

"Would you mind removing the hat and sunglasses Miss Summers?" the teacher asked with a frown. She was a history teacher and was always sceptical of everything that was without proof.

Buffy complied (reluctantly) and removed her beige crusher hat and her brand new Gucci shades. She smoothed her hat-hair down self-consciously and braced herself for the round of 'oh my God's that was sure to occur.

"Oh my God," the teacher muttered. As did Oz, Willow and the rest of the class.

"Okay..." the teacher said, barely managing to reign in the shock in her voice. She turned her attention back to the marking of the roll. "Darla Sutherland?"

"Here."

"Robert Talbot?"

The teacher continued calling the roll and handing out the timetables and reading the notices. Among the notices were various tryouts, club announcements and a request for volunteers to be in the Homecoming Dance Organising Committee.

The bell rung right on time and Buffy found that most of the students weren't in such a hurry to leave. In fact, she could see a few heading in her direction and glanced around her for help. **Ooh, Willow.** "Willow?"

"Yeah?" Willow asked nervously. Her eyes were wide and her hands shaking as she picked up her books.

"Could you please tell me where room," Buffy looked down at her timetable, "109 is?"

Willow glanced down at her own timetable, "I think I'm in the same class. Advanced Chemistry?" She raised her eyebrows. **I'm sure she's not stupid, but ADVANCED? Even *I* have trouble in that class...**

"Yeah. I'm glad there'll be a familiar face then," Buffy smiled brightly. She put her hat back on as well as her shades and the two girls headed toward the Science block. She hoped that word hadn't spread too quickly, but she could always dream. She received a couple of stares as they passed through the corridors but she busied herself in conversing with her new friend and barely noticed.

"What's it like? You know, being famous?" Willow asked excitedly. After talking to the girl for only two minutes, she found that it got easier and easier to talk to her and was much more down-to-earth than she seemed.

"I always get asked that, you know? And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure. It just goes by so quick that you hardly even notice it."

Willow nodded. "I can imagine... I don't think I'd be able to cope with the pressure if I were you." Willow steered them into the classroom—room 109—and they took seats near the back of the room. "I wonder which teacher we'll have," Willow wondered aloud.

"Thanks," Buffy said with a slight smile.

"What on earth for?"

"For not being all paranoid around me."

"What about me?" Buffy took her glasses off and lifted her gaze to again see the very masculine form of Angel Ferguson.

"You, too, then," Buffy smiled. "Advanced Chem? And I thought you were one of those stereotypical jock-types."

"And I thought you were one of those stereotypical celebrity-types," Angel said, raising his eyebrows pointedly. He took a seat next to Buffy and nodded a greeting to Willow.

"Point taken," Buffy replied. "I guess we all have layers then."

"Angel's actually quite smart...but he doesn't like to admit it," Willow said with a smirk. "He just gets distracted too easily."

Angel shrugged sheepishly, "What was it? Toll House cookies, football, loud dogs, daydreaming, flashy cars, newspaper articles...the creases on my palms? I think I pretty much got distracted by all of those things while being tutored by yours truly," Angel cocked his head in the red head's direction, "Willow the Genius."

The teacher entered the room, only arriving late because he had been held up by Principal Snyder. Dr Gregory was not only pleased to learn that he had a celebrity in his class, but a pretty darned smart one too. He clapped his hands twice to gain the attention of his class.

"I'm sure you're all still excited about the summer break but, as most of you already know from taking this class last year with Mr Thomason, this class covers a lot of topics and we only have so much time to cover it in. This is Advanced Chemistry, so if any of you are planning on slacking off and not doing your homework then I suggest you pick a different course. And yes, sadly enough, you'll be having me this year," Dr Gregory said with a smile.

The class burst into laughter. It was a *very* well known fact that Dr Gregory was the nicest teacher in the faculty and the only science teacher who not only had a doctorate, but a good many years of practical experience in the field of chemistry. He even knew the periodic table like the back of his hand.

"You know we love ya, Doc," one of the other students in the class said.

"Right, well, now that's cleared up, I'll issue your textbooks and then we can get on with the lesson," Dr Gregory continued. "I hope you don't object to arrange seating. It's easier for me, and you. It helps me to see who's absent, to help my deteriorating memory remember your names and to avoid any...disagreements. The seats you are all currently in will be the ones you'll keep for the rest of the year."

The lesson went by before they knew it and armed with brand new text books, a lesson plan and a few things to revise on for homework—just to refresh their memories. Talking about revising...

"Umm, Angel?" Buffy asked as she packed up her stuff.

"Yeah?"

"Did I say that stuff aloud? You know, about your pants?" Buffy asked shyly. **Shyly? Whenever did I get shy? I'm not shy. Then why am I shy? I can't be shy. Celebrities aren't shy... Oh, don't flatter yourself, Summers.**

"I'm afraid you did. Unless I was reading your thoughts," Angel replied with a smirk. He had gradually become comfortable around her presence and less than an hour after meeting her, he felt as if he could carry a normal conversation with her. **Of course, I feel as if I can make pigs fly at the moment too...**

"Damn. I was *so* hoping I wouldn't embarrass myself on my first day," Buffy said with an admittedly flirtatious smile.

"Why were you embarrassed?" Willow asked, all of a sudden joining into the conversation. She had been discussing the text with Amy Madison, to help her re-understand it. Apparently, she had missed out on that part of the topic the year before because of the death of her mother and hadn't ever caught up on it. "Unless..."

"Don't worry, Willow. It isn't too extraordinary. What've you got next?"

"I think I have English," Willow checked the timetable. "Yep, English. Room 203."

"Cool, I'm in the same class...again," Buffy exclaimed excitedly. "I wonder if we have any other classes together..." Buffy headed toward the door leaving Willow and Angel a few paces behind.

"She's nice," Willow whispered to him. "And she's smart. Wouldn't it be cool if we became really good friends or whatever? She's nice," she repeated and left Angel behind to catch up with her.

"Yeah, she is," Angel said to himself. **Just two weeks to go, buddy. I don't even know how I lasted so long...**

*****

Throughout the day, Buffy gradually eased into her new 'normal Californian teenager' role and had ditched the stupid disguise. She didn't care about being recognised—heck, it was bound to happen anyway. She decided that it was better to embrace it—she was going to be there for a while.

Her new friendship with Willow was already beginning to blossom and the two girls discovered that they had many of their classes together and she had even met the rest of Willow's friends. As well as the ever-charming, Miss Cordelia Chase...in Buffy's opinion, Cordelia was...rather bracing. **I wonder if her role model is Victoria Principle...it's possible...**

"Buffy!"

She turned to the sound of the voice and spotted Angel jogging toward her.

"Are you going home already?" Angel asked hurriedly.

"Yeah, cos you know, end of school..." Buffy frowned.

"Do you...do you wanna stay for the tryouts?"

"Oh my God, how could I forget? My memory is really bad... I'm *so* sorry. Tell you what? I'll meet you after your tryouts and then we can walk home, grab a coffee together or whatever. You just reminded me about this...thing I was going to do."

"And what might that be?"

"Don't worry, you'll find out," Buffy said mysteriously before turning around to head the way she was originally going. Angel was left by himself to watch her walking away from him. But not for long...

"Angel?" Darla's voice asked from behind him, startling him out of his musings.

"Darla..." Angel grumbled back. He REALLY regretted this now... **I have (or had) a really good chance with Buffy—the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth—but Darla is here to ruin it all...bitch. There's too much to lose here. I can wait two weeks...unless some other guy catches Buffy's fancy by then.** "What do you want?"

"Just a kiss," Darla said innocently.

"Whatever, I don't care." Angel kissed her quickly, not caring about her motives or whatever strange something or other she might've had up her sleeve. He was late for tryouts and it was better to have her out of his hair instead of clinging to him until he complied. He'd learnt that lesson quickly.

Darla peeked out of the corner of her eye to see the expression on Cordelia Chase's face. Queen C had been chasing after the hottest property in SHS (namely, Angel Ferguson) for years and Darla felt the need to rub it in her face. All's well that ends well.

"I'll see you later then?" Darla asked, licking her lips for Cordelia to see.

"Whatever," Angel replied, before dashing off to the tryouts. The coach needed help choosing new players for the team—no escape—and had a zero-tolerance on lateness. Well, unless you were his star quarterback, but there were always limitations...being 10 minutes late because of his love-life being one of them.

Darla huffed. **If that guy wasn't so fuckable, THEN I'd be offended.**

*****

"Cheerleadin' tryouts?" Gunn laughed. "Whatchu doin' tryin' out for cheerleadin'?"

"Why not?" Buffy frowned.

"Nothin', nothin'...suit yourself," Gunn said. "Although, there IS one condition."

"And what would that be?" Buffy asked, even though she knew what he was going to say.

"Can I watch? All those hot girls in short skirts jumping around and being all acrobatic? Man, I haven't gotten any of that kinda action for a LONG time. How completely sad is that?"

"Be my guest," Buffy grinned.

She grabbed the gym bag from the back seat of the long, black limousine parked in the student car park and hurried back into the school, eagerly wanting to do what she did best...well, besides singing and all that stuff. **Gosh, I haven't done cheerleading since freshman year...**