A/N : This is a majorly short chapter, for which I apologise profusely. My God, this writing two stories at once thing is harder than I remember, but I'll deal. Lots of nice reviews encourages me to write as much as possible. Thanks for all the reviews of chapter 1, I can't believe so many people like this after just one chapter! Thanx to; Dark Raven, faith95, SpIkEs AnGeL, RoboShiflo, CRAIGnDILLONsCHICK, pipper-noiter, Summer1, SweetBitter, tinkerbell42, ms trick, Ahna the bloody, SouthernRain, RougeCrayon - you guys are the best and make me smile with your kind words. Here's chapter 2...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 2 - Stage One
"Elizabeth?" a voice asked, accompanied by a tapping on the girls bedroom door, "Are you in there?"
"Yes, mother" Buffy replied, aggravated by the interruption of her thoughts. She'd been so wrapped up in her plans she had almost forgotten where she was.
Lady Joyce soon appeared in her daughters doorway, clearly not amused by the position she found her daughter in, slumped across her bed staring at the ceiling as if it held the answers to all world difficulties.
"Elizabeth, for heavens sake, what are you doing?" Buffy's mother snapped and the girl heaved herself up to a sitting position.
"Nothing" she said simply, going from sitting to standing in one elegant movement as she had been taught.
"Well, do you think you could interrupt your doing nothing long enough to come do some late shopping with me?" Lady Joyce asked sarcastically, "It really is time we got you some new clothes and I need a few things myself"
"New clothes?" Buffy brightened a little at the prospect of clothes shopping, one small advantage to having money to burn was shopping, but the downside of course, because there always was one, was that she could never buy the clothes she really wanted. As a child she had been content to pick out dresses and shoes fit for princesses, basically larger versions of those clothes you would dress fine dolls in, but these days, Buffy just wanted to be a teenage girl. She wanted denim and leather, bright colours and plunging necklines, high hems and high heels, and those were things that all the money in the world couldn't buy for her, because it just wasn't allowed. Her mother wouldn't allow it and 'society', whatever that meant, would not allow it.
High class girls were not allowed to be simple teenagers, or even people. They had to be prim and proper, and as far as Buffy could see, old before their time. Her clothes resembled her mothers these days and she resented it. Just one more thing on a very long list of things and people that she resented.
"Mom, do you think I could have some different clothes?" she dared to ask, allowing herself just a little false hope, as the two women walked from the youngers room and down the stairs.
"Different?" her mother echoed as if the word were foreign to her.
"Yeah, y'know like other girls wear?" Buffy tried to explain.
"Is there something in particular that you wanted?" her mother asked, "Something Cordelia or Harmony has that you would like?"
Buffy sighed deeply, her mother was never going to understand.
"No, it doesn't matter" she relented, it wasn't worth it, when he knew was almost certain of what her mothers reaction would be anyway, if she ever did get her to understand.
A department store, one of the biggest in the huge town they called Sunnydale, and Elizabeth Summers was drowning amongst floral prints and sensible shoes. Everything her mother suggested she might like to try on and eventually buy, Buffy was disgusted by it. She politely declined the offer of extra money to by those 'adorable' shoes and that 'gorgeous' blouse. Buffy hated it, hated all of it.
Across from where she stood, next to her mother who was rifling through racks of skirts of her own liking, Buffy could see a girl of about her age. She looked a little worse for wear compared to Miss Summers, not half so well turned out, but Buffy noticed the wide smile on her face as the girl pulled a pair of blue jeans from the rack. She watched as the girl reached in her pocket and pulled out a handful of crumpled bills. The nameless female counted the money, checked the price tag on the denim article in her hands and made her way to the cash register to pay for it. A simple thing, saving money to buy something you really wanted, but it was something Buffy would never do.
Nothing Buffy owned belonged to her, it belonged to her mother for it was her mother who paid for everything. There was no allowance as such for the Summers children, they were just bought whatever they wanted when they asked for it, except Buffy couldn't have what she really wanted at all.
She wanted those jeans, not because she particularly liked them, she really couldn't tell what they looked like from where she was but she wanted them, because the other girl had them and because she wanted to be that other girl, any of the other girls in the store, over there on the other side, the side where money was tougher to come by but when you had it, it was yours and you could buy what you really wanted with it.
Buffy was suddenly aware that her mother was speaking to her.
"...so, I'm going to go and try these on and I'll be back in a moment..."
"Yeah, okay" the girl nodded to her mother as she disappeared.
Alone amongst rails of clothes like those that she wore, those that defined her as all she wanted to escape from. Slowly she ventured out, across that invisible line, through the non-physical barrier to the other side of the store where real clothes waited, real clothes that real people wore. Buffy was surrounded by low cut, brightly coloured tops, deliberately faded jeans and short leather skirts. Every colour of the rainbow, every kind of fabric that her mother deemed unsuitable and common and that Buffy craved to wear.
How long would her mother be in the changing rooms? Buffy wasn't sure, but judging by the sheer mountain of clothing she'd take in with her it would probably be a while. A smile spread across the girls face as she had a thought, a pleasing thought, a thought that led to an action that would be christened stage one in her plans for her one wild night.
To Be Continued...