Faith stares up at the building with apprehension. "Shell, I don't think that this is such a good idea. I mean, come on, you Council guys are depending on an ex-con. There is something very not Kosher with that. Tell me that you noticed it too," she pleads.
"Faith," he says while taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. "You may not believe this, but the Council has always been on your side," he states.
"For real?" She asks and he nods his head. "If they were pulling for me, why did they try and off me when I woke from the coma?" She asks skeptically.
"We weren't trying to 'off you', we were going to bring you to England and try to reform you," Faith scoffs. "It was obviously the wrong approach, obviously."
"So, what, after three years in prison they feel that I am rehabilitated? They trust me again?" She asks, hope creeping into her voice.
"No," Sheldon states bluntly. "This is another attempt at rehabilitation. This is as much for you as it is for Michelle. We have faith in you," he says with a smile.
"Nice pun," Faith says while rolling her eyes, but smiling nonetheless. "I just don't know if I can handle this, you know? It's a lot of responsibility for me. If it was just me on my own, then I would be fine, but you're putting me in charge of another girl's life. Now it's two lives that I have a chance at fucking up," she says with a sigh.
"Listen, you need to have more confidence in yourself. You are stronger than you think," he tells her. "Besides, I think our biggest problem is your people skills, or lack thereof, as it were," he says with a smirk.
"That's for damn sure," she grumbles. She takes a deep breath and glances back up at the malicious building standing before her. "Okay, school," she says, trying to psych herself up. "So, the Council has everything taken care of right? School records and all that shit?"
"Yes, we have everything taken care of Faith. All you have to do is go in," Sheldon tells her.
"Okay. I can do this. I'm Faith the Vampire Slayer, I can do anything," she says to herself and lets out a deep breath to psych herself up. "Will I see you again?" She asks.
"No, I am afraid not. I have done everything I am supposed to. Everything else is up to you. Oh, and before I forget, here are the keys to your apartment and car," he says with a wink.
"Apartment and car?" Faith repeats and he nods. "Damn, kick ass job perks," she says with a crooked grin. "So, there's nothing else I'm supposed to know, nothing else you can do?" She pleads and he shakes his head. "Talk about a leap of faith," she mumbles.
"That's the idea," he agrees. "But don't underestimate the Council Faith. We will be keeping an eye on you and if we feel that your performance is inadequate, more severe measures will be taken," he warns. "It is inadvisable that you go rogue again."
"I can't make any promises because then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll fail, but I am going to tell you that I'm going to try my hardest to not fuck things up," she says earnestly.
"If that's all you can offer, then that's all we can ask," Sheldon says with a smile.
"Alright then. Off I go," Faith says with a sigh. She grabs her bag and gets out of the car and shuts the door. Sheldon drives off and Faith is left staring up at the school. "Here you are Faith, the first day of the rest of your life," she mumbles to herself, recalling her prison therapist's first words to her.
She pulls a death grip on the strap of her backpack and starts to walk toward the school. Slowly, but surely, because she isn't in too much of a hurry, she gets to the entrance of the school and stands in front of the door. "Come on Faith, you're a fucking Slayer. You've survived apocalypses, vampires and demons, how much harder can school be?" She asks herself.
Faith heaves the door open, cringing at the banging sound it made as it slammed against the wall, thinking how stupid she was to have forgotten about her Slayer strength. Upon entering, she breathes a sigh of relief when she realizes that the halls are empty. So, she takes a quick look around before taking a guess as to where the main office is. Eventually, she gets there and cautiously enters.
"Hello. Can I help you?" The secretary asks with a smile.
"Yeah. I'm new here and-" Faith begins.
"You need to go to see Principal Reynolds," the secretary says with a smile. "His office is down that hall and the second door on the right," she tells her.
"Thanks," Faith says and heads down to the principal's office. "Talk about deja vu," she mumbles to herself. She knocks and opens the door.
"Hello Faith. I'm Principal Reynolds, but you can call me Charles," he says with a smile, standing up and offering his hand to her.
"Okay Chuck. Will do. You can call me Faith," she responds, shaking his hand.
"Nice to finally meet you," Charles says, taking his seat and motioning for Faith to do the same.
"What do you mean 'finally'? You were just sent the transfer papers yesterday," she says, confusion evident in her tone.
"That was pretty much just a formality. I work with the Council," he tells her. "I've known for quite sometime that you may be transferred here."
"Wow, you guys sure have your bases covered. Why didn't they just have you watch over this Michelle chick?" Faith asks. "It would be easier, and safer, than taking a known criminal out of prison," she states glumly.
"It would be too, um, shady if she and I were to constantly be around each other for non-school related things. Especially since I don't suppose that she would be the school spirit type, we really would have no business interacting unless she got in trouble. It would be far less suspicious-"
"If it was two high school girls constantly hanging out?" She finishes and he nods. "And seeing as how it is very doubtful that the Council has any school age employees, that left me, who is too old to be in school anyways."
"Not according to your records," Charles says with a smile. "The Council adjusted some things and made you 16. Everything from the time you joined the Mayor until now has been wiped out."
"What about before Richard?" She asks. "Did you change anything from then too?"
"I am afraid not. We couldn't take out bits and pieces, we were only able to take out the last four years," he says with a slight frown.
"Okay," Faith says with disappointment. "Can you tell me about the new Slayer? I mean, I know next to nothing about her. Just her first name and her current Slayer status. That's about it."
"Sadly, I don't know much about her either. This is her first day here as well and she went to guidance for her schedule. So, I haven't met her yet," Charles explains. "Oh, speaking of schedules, I have yours right here. I made sure that the two of you at least had a couple of classes together," he says as he hands it over.
"You didn't give me any hard shit did you Chuck?" She asks as she reaches over to take it.
"It depends on your definition of 'hard shit', as you so eloquently put it. By the way, you might like to look over the school rules. It might do you some good because, I may have let it slip this one time, the other teachers may not be quite so tolerant."
"Alright, I got it," she grumbles as she looks over the schedule. "Algebra 2? Advanced chemistry? What the hell is this all about?" She asks, horrified by the classes. "Did you not get the memo saying that I'm not exactly the brightest crayon in the box?"
"Faith, I'm positive that you will do fine. I'll send for a student to show you around. You've already missed first block, so they'll show you to your next one," he says cheerfully as he ushers her out before she can protest.
Faith grunts in opposition as she's pushed out of his office. "That's just great," she grumbles as she walks out into the main office.
"You the new girl?" A blonde cheerleader asks as she walks into the office, looking Faith up and down.
"Yeah. Who the f...hell are you?" Faith responds, catching herself.
"I'm Courtney. Principal Reynolds wanted me to show you around the school or some shit," Courtney replies. "Come on," she barks.
"Aye, aye Captain," Faith shoots back sarcastically as she goes over to the cheerleader. "Don't get your skirt in a bind," she grumbles.
"You're one to talk. What's with all the leather? This is California not wherever the hell you came from," Courtney bites back and Faith smirks. "Screw you."
"Nice verbal skills...for a cheerleader that is," she retorts with a grin. "I haven't met a cheerleader with such an extensive vocabulary," she smirks.
"Skank," Courtney mumbles and Faith raises an eyebrow. "Let me see your schedule so I can get this torment over with," she orders as she snatches it from Faith. "Shit," she grumbles.
"What?" Faith asks, not really giving a damn, but curious nonetheless.
"We have PE and world lit together," she grumbles, thoroughly not pleased.
"Joy of joys," Faith says, rolling her eyes. She looks upwards and opens her arms. "Go ahead, kick me while I'm down," she says.
"What's your deal? I'm the one that'll have to see you every day."
"So, what, I should be blessed to be in your divine presence?" Faith asks rhetorically.
"Damn straight!" She responds and Faith starts to laugh. Courtney raises her eyebrow. "Come on. Let me take you to second block, world lit," she says, smiling despite herself.
Faith walks into her world literature teacher's class and he turned to her. "Hey," Faith smiles as she hands him her schedule.
He gives her a strange look as he takes the schedule from her. "I'm Mr. Waters," he says suspiciously as he looks at her schedule to find her name. "Faith. This is certainly a big day for new students. However, I wasn't aware of you," he says.
"Yeah. Sorry about that, I guess it was kind of last minute. In fact, I didn't find out that I was getting out of...my last school until yesterday," Faith replies, nearly slipping.
"That is short notice. Would you happen to know the other two students?" Mr. Waters asks.
"No, why?" She asks, knitting her brows together in confusion when the bell rings, cutting her off.
"Please, take a seat," he offers, pointing to a seat in the back, between Courtney and another cheerleader giggling in the back.
"Figures. Fucking cheerleaders," Faith grumbles to herself as she heads back. She sits in the assigned seat with a long suffering sigh.
"Not happy to see me?" Courtney taunts and her friend giggles. Faith shoots them both menacing glares, effectively shutting them up.
"I'm Whitney," the other cheerleader offers hesitantly.
"Nice to meet you," Faith replies with a derisive grin. Both cheerleaders quiet down again, not wanting to provoke the irate Slayer further, letting the class pass by slowly. The bell rings and Faith bolts out the door, running into a dark haired boy, knocking him over.
"Hey, there you are!" He says excitedly. "Guess what?" The boy asks.
"Huh?" Faith offers as the most intelligent thing she can muster given the situation.
"I just met someone. Her name is Torrance," he says with a big goofy grin.
"Good for you Skippy," Faith responds, patting him on the shoulder. "I'll be sure to alert the media," she says, noting a vague resemblance between him and Xander.
"Hey, Chuck," Faith says as she enters his office after her last class.
"Yes Faith," Charles replies. "Did you find her?" He asks with hope as he leans forward in his seat.
"No, I didn't. I mean, I was all waiting by the classes and s...stuff," she says, catching herself again. "But I didn't see her or nothing."
"What do you mean by 'waiting by the classes'? Shouldn't you have been in those classes?" He asks scornfully.
"Well, you see, this school thing takes some getting used to. I need to ease back into it. Baby steps you know," she says, hoping that he goes for it.
"Faith," he says, rubbing his eyes to ward off the headache he feels coming on. "You need to go to class. If you are to pass as a believable high school student, you're going to have to actually go to class."
"I didn't go to class when I was in school," she shrugs. "I think that that is believable enough, don't you?" She asks.
"If you don't obey the Council's wishes, they'll put you back into prison," he warns.
"How do you know that that wouldn't be for the best Chuck? How do you know that everyone wouldn't be better off if I was back in prison?" Faith asks glumly.
"Faith," Charles sighs. "A Slayer in prison is of no use. The Council thinks that you deserve at least another shot at redeeming yourself. You're lucky, decades ago, you would've been executed by us."
"Fine, fine. I'll go look for her. Maybe she's still on campus or something. I hear that they're having cheerleading tryouts, she may be up for that," Faith relents with a sigh.
"What makes you think that?" Charles asks with confusion.
"Maybe to be more normal. I heard that Buffy had tried out for the squad back in Sunnydale. Or, maybe to keep her Slayer skills honed. It's worth a shot. And besides, if that doesn't work out, I can always track her down at her house, of which I'm sure you have the address," she says.
"I see your point. I'll see you later Faith," ha says as she leaves his office.
"Yeah. Later Chuck," she says as she leaves.
"Chuck?" He says to himself, shaking his head with an amused smile on his face.
Faith strolls up to the gym, listening to sounds of cheering. She inwardly cringes as she nears. When she approaches, she peers in to see a tables of cheer-bitches, including the ever popular Courtney and Whitney. She leans against the outside door as the next person steps up to the plate. She can only see the back of the girl, but she can tell that this is her girl. Faith is a little thrown off by the confused expressions on Courtney and Whitney's faces, but quickly dismisses it.
The girl steps up in front of the Council of Cheerleaders, or so it seems. She inwardly cringes, doubting her sanity. She gets a strange sensation and her back tenses up, like when she's around a vamp, only less unpleasant and more comforting. She turns to glance behind her at the door, but is interrupted.
"Missy, is it?" A dark haired girl at the table asks patronizingly. Missy can't help but sneer back.
Faith puts the name together. 'Missy, Michelle. Okay, I can see that.'
"I'm sorry, but tattoos are strictly forbidden," a pompous blonde cheerleader states with a smug ass grin on her face.
From the doorway, Faith looks at Missy's arm and notices the tattoo. She looks over at Missy and sees that she flips off Courtney, the wonder bitch. She sees that she licks the finger and runs it along her arm, smearing the ink.
"I got bored during fourth period," Missy states with a shrug.
Faith watches the whole interview thing from the doorway, gaining intense pleasure when Missy stunned Courtney into silence with the flips and stuff.
"We have so already decided on Jamie," Courtney says, and Faith scoffs from her position. "Besides," she begins, sharing a knowing glance with Whitney, "she looks like an uber-dyke."
Faith was fuming and had an urge to storm in there and deck Courtney, but restrained herself to see Missy turn around and storm out. Faith opted for going to speak to Missy.
Missy is livid as she stalks out of the gym. 'Damn bitches. I knew that I must've been out of my goddamned mind for even considering becoming a cheerleader. Especially with all this other Slayer shit going on.' She thinks to herself, before pausing as she exits the gym.
She looks around, sensing the same thing as in the gym. Missy slowly turns the corner and runs into some dark haired chick.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't see you," Missy stutters as she bends down to pick up her keys.
Faith turn the corner as, presumably, Missy runs into her and quickly apologizes as she picks up her keys. 'Even her voice seems familiar'.
"It's cool," Faith says with a smile. Her smile quickly fades as Missy looks up.
Missy looks up, at first with curiosity toward the first person being somewhat civil to her. Then her smile fades. They stare at each other, mirror images of one another.
