Part 5
Gunn settled himself on the bleachers inside the school's gymnasium and contentedly watched the steady stream of girls flooding in for the cheerleading tryouts; both to watch and to tryout for a place on the squad. Could he really help it if he had natural hormonal urges to satisfy? He honestly didn't have any control over such urges—scientifically proven stuff too...he supposed.
A loud whistle was blown to draw the attention of the mass of girls crowded all over the bleachers. "Quiet, please!" A voice shouted.
A group of girls who Gunn supposed was part of the current cheerleading squad stood with a certain air of authority at the edge of the court, inspecting the faces of the young hopefuls among the crowd. Cordelia was surprised with the turnout—they only had a few spots vacant, not including the freshmen they were "required" to enlist.
"Thank you," the voice said again. "Welcome to the tryouts for SHS's cheerleading squad. Good luck to everyone and try to keep your ears open and your voices down. Hi, I'm the squad's captain, Cordelia Chase, and we're going to be judging on your routine memorisation speed, flexibility, strength of voice and your ability to perform. We don't have enough time to audition all of you one by one, so please bear with us on this...procedure. Okay?"
A chorus of 'okay's came from the bleachers.
"Good. Firstly, we'll do a quick head count, split you into groups and teach you a short routine. Each group is going to perform the routine and if we feel as if you're not capable of memorising routines quickly, then we'll be letting you go. And so on and so forth until we have our final selections for the squad."
Gunn almost fell asleep after five minutes of listening to the brunette (a pretty hot brunette; but snobby-looking) go on and on about procedure this, procedure that; freshman this, groups that. He was surprised he hadn't conked out during the first two minutes. Not surprisingly, after the five minutes were up, they had begun to really get into it. **Girls in short skirts, jumping around, being all acrobatic...now I know there really is a God. Amen. Where's Buffy anyway?**
*****
Buffy crept into the gym later than she had anticipated, after being held up by...people. **More like drooling over the football guys...** She stuck her head through the door and hoped that nobody had noticed her lateness. Unfortunately, luck wasn't with her at that particular moment.
"Looking for something?" The one and only Cordelia Chase asked pleasantly, with a much-too-fake smile that made Buffy wonder if her own fake-smiles looked so...hmm.
"Yeah. Umm, sorry. I was kinda held up by some...stuff. Is that okay?"
"Sure. You can join the group in the corner over there. We're just doing routine memorisation. You know, that kind of thing," Cordelia said, pointing to the far corner which consisted of about ten other seniors.
Buffy nodded and headed in that direction, leaving her stuff with Gunn as she crossed the room. Buffy rolled her eyes at the gasps and much too familiar silence that resounded from the other groups of cheerleader-wannabes; mostly freshmen, sophomores and with just a small handful of juniors.
"Hi," Buffy greeted her group. There were nine seniors including a girl in her cheerleading uniform, teaching the routine to her group in a fashion that would be hard to follow. For some people. Buffy had been dancing since the tender age of three—enough to be able to learn steps and routines at the drop of hat and had a knack for performing them. She figured that this audition/tryout would be a piece of cake compared to her pre-concert preparations and rehearsals. **Good for me...you know, theoretically.**
"Hi," the cheerleader replied brightly as did the rest of the group, each stopping briefly to flash Buffy a smile although each inwardly wondering if their own performances would be degraded by hers.
"Okay, let's go over the steps again," the cheerleader (who had not yet even introduced herself to Buffy) said turning away from the group and counting them in. Buffy watched the series of steps and put them to memory. The steps seemed familiar...but Buffy couldn't remember where she had seen them before. The group repeated the sequence a few more times, giving Buffy the time to learn the rhythm and timing of the moves. Buffy watched, not really needing the practise—the steps weren't THAT hard. It was like doing pliès: demi-pliè, grande-pliè, change positions, and repeat.
"Okay, now we're going to try it with the music," the nameless cheerleader said, pressing play on the tape deck which was sitting on the first row of seats on the bleachers, "without my help." The girl sat herself down next to the tape deck and watched with a sly smile spread across her face. Until she realised what song had been picked...and where the much-too-familiar steps came from.
Buffy hummed the familiar tune of the song, finally recognising where the steps had come from. They were simplified from the music video for this song... **What was it called again? Oh yeah, "Anticipating" or something like that.**
//Top down, on the stripLookin' in the mirror and
I'm checkin' out my lipstick
Girlfriends up in the back
Were out for an all night
Feelin' so crazy cool
But that's alright
Don't know what they're ready for
Valet baby, here's the keys
We're about to step inside//
Buffy executed the moves perfectly, concentrating on doing it the way they had shown instead of the (much) harder version of it from the video. She sung the lyrics quietly in her head, keeping in time to the music and sensing the stares that were sure to be present.
//Skip on the drinksHead to the floor
Makin' my way
Past the show
My body's taken over
And I want some more//
Cordelia strode over to their group and pushed the 'stop' button of the tape recorder. "Okay, I think that's enough. We'll see this group perform first," Cordelia said bitterly, narrowing her eyes at the sight of Buffy. Rumours were already bouncing all over the school about Buffy and Angel being a possible couple in the very near future. Cordelia didn't like that idea too much, but being the competitive person she was, she also wanted recruits for her squad to actually be good, really good. **Oh yeah Cordy, spite yourself some more...oh, and while you're at it, go bite yourself in the ass, too.**
At the end of the first and second rounds, there were only 4 seniors—including Buffy—and about 15 girls left from the other grades—mostly freshmen.
Gunn watched from the other end of the gymnasium, carefully studying the girls that—for one reason or another—were still hanging around like a personified flock of sheep. Some of them had even talked to him, but none had interested him except for the commanding brunette by the name of Cordelia Chase. Gunn liked confidence in a woman. **God, look at that body. Can't say I'm complaining...**
Gunn flicked his gaze back to his charge and checked the box that was beside 'Safe during tryouts' on his imaginary checklist. No creepy men, no cameras, no crowding. **Except for these girls...hey, hold on a sec...**
"Okay, we'll have a five minute break and then we'll do the individual auditions," Cordelia announced, just to be disregarded by the people who flocked towards Buffy to get her to sign her autograph—on notebooks, binders, caps, and anything else they could find. Gunn stood up to help out, but Buffy gave him a Look that told him to sit his ass down. **Okay, not arguing. I got bad experiences with flocks of girls anyway. Ooh, there's Cordelia.**
Gunn got up again and headed down the bleachers and headed towards the cheerleaders, who were struggling to move a large table out onto the court. **No better way to meet girls than to help them out with stuff...or so Marcus says.**
"Hi," Gunn said to Cordelia, "need help moving that?"
"Sure...whatever. Be careful though, it's heavy."
Gunn lifted one end of the table easily, much to the surprise of Cordelia and the rest of her helpers. The girls immediately lifted the other end and moved it right under the basketball hoop where the chairs were already set up.
Gunn was thanking Marcus inwardly as he saw Cordelia approaching him out of the corner of her eye. He stuck out his hand, "Gunn."
"Cordelia," she answered, shaking his hand. "Thanks for the help. You workout?"
"Only when I get time," Gunn answered with a shrug. "My job is kinda time consuming."
"Really? That leads me to wonder why a guy with a busy schedule is hanging around at a high school, perving on the girls trying out for cheerleading," Cordelia commented, half jokingly and half seriously.
"Me? Perving? No way," Gunn lied.
"Yeah, cos that's believable," Cordelia turned away to grab the box of comment slips that were needed for the judges to fill in for each applicant. She laid them out—one in front of each chair—and turned back to face Gunn.
"It's true. I'm a bodyguard."
"For who? An invisible Chelsea Clinton?"
"Close but not quite," Gunn said proudly. "For her," Gunn cast his gaze in Buffy's direction.
"Uh-huh, and I'm the Easter Bunny," Cordelia said sarcastically. She looked back up from the box. "You're serious," she stated, pausing for a moment to think of the possibilities. "Must be a Hell of a job then..." **I wonder if he has connections...wow, I could be, like, an overnight superstar...**
*****
Buffy signed the last autograph and checked her watch. **Shit, it's getting late. I hope they won't finish their tryouts too early...**
Buffy scanned the room and found Cordelia talking to..."Gunn?" Buffy gave the pen back to the girl who she had just finished autographing for and jogged over to the other side of the court. "Cordelia, can I have a word with you, please?"
"Of course. But only if you tell me if Gunn is *really* your bodyguard, though."
"Yeah, he is. Charles Gunn, born in 1978 and raised in LA by his mother, Peggy, and older brother, Marcus," Buffy replied breathlessly. "I'm kinda running late, so can I, like, go first or something?"
"Running late for what?" Gunn asked in puzzlement. He knew her schedule—where she should be, who she should be with, what time and why.
"I-I'm going t-to the orthodontist," Buffy stuttered, flashing Gunn a 'don't say a word' kind of look.
"Of course you can," Cordelia smiled and sat herself at the chair that stood directly in the middle. "If you need to go to the orthodontist to check up on your imaginary braces, then be my guest."
"I meant dentist," Buffy amended quickly. "Just a slip of the tongue. Happens all the time. Orthodontist, dentist, same thing..."
"If you insist," Cordelia replied. "You have to fill out one of these though." She handed her a form and a pen, "Just so we know where to contact you, your details, stuff like that."
Buffy filled it in with her neat script and handed the form back. "Here."
The judges sat behind the desk, smiling. They each held pens in their hands which were poised over their comment slips and reminded Buffy of when she once dreamt that she auditioned for a role in a commercial and got turned down for being 'too blonde'.
"So what exactly am I required to do? You know, since I missed the first few minutes."
"We ask you questions, you answer them. We ask you to yell, you yell. Okay?" Cordelia asked, scribbling a few words on the page in front of her.
"Okay."
*****
Buffy was asked questions and she answered them. She was asked to yell and she yelled. Heading up the bleachers where Gunn was sitting, Buffy grabbed her stuff and started heading towards the locker rooms.
Gunn grabbed her arm. "Wait, what's the hurry? Who're you meeting?"
"A friend," Buffy said and ran into the girls' locker rooms, leaving Gunn to stand outside by himself.
When Buffy came out again, she tossed her gym bag to him and said, "Could you please take this home and tell Giles I'll be a bit late? You'll find me on Main Street. If you don't, call me on my cell."
"Right. Got it. Go home, tell Giles, meet you on Main Street and call if I can't find you. Okay."
"Not meet. Just...I dunno. Do whatever it is that you do..." Buffy shrugged.
"Ooh, you're meeting a guy," Gunn said in a sing-song voice. "I don't need to tell you to be careful do I?"
"I've got my new lipstick-sized pepper spray, remember? No worries. So...I'm not in trouble?"
"Let's just say that I think it's about time you got somebody to hang out with who isn't me...I meant that in a good way," Gunn added with a frown.
"You're such a sweetie," Buffy gave him a peck on the cheek, "bye."
*****
Angel watched Buffy from down the hallway. **Who am I kidding? How could I just assume that a girl like Buffy wouldn't already have a boyfriend? Oh well...I guess I could settle at being just friends...in theory, I suppose.**
Buffy waved goodbye to Gunn and jogged down the hallway to meet Angel, who looked to be staring at his shoes. "Hi. Sorry about the being late thing. I was trying out for the cheerleading squad," Buffy announced happily.
"Really? Well then I think you're definitely gonna get in," Angel said. "If that helps at all."
"It does," Buffy beamed. "You wanna grab a coffee or a conversational beverage of any kind? You know, cos I'd really like to get to know you better."
"Sure. Coffee sounds good."