"Mr. Cooper, I can explain," Courtney begins before the teacher can say anything. "That note-"
He sighs and puts his hand up to stop her from continuing as he looks up at the girl. "Ms. Scott, what's in this note is something for you to sort out for yourself. I just want you to know that if you are having problems with anything that you can come to me, any of your other teachers or even your guidance councilor. As clichéd as it may sound, that's what we're here for," he says with a slight smirk.
"Thanks," Courtney mumbles as she takes back the note with a blush. She then grabs her purse and her book and scurries out of the classroom.
"Oh, and by the way, try and save discussions of these internal conflicts for after my class, not during," he adds, trying to prevent anyone from thinking he's too nice.
"Hey," Faith greets as Courtney exits the class. "Everything okay?" She asks with actual concern for the other girl. Then, she notices the flush of the blonde's face and looks at her suspiciously. "What was in the note?" She asks good-naturedly pointing to the paper in the other girl's hand.
"It's nothing, just got in trouble for not paying attention to him," Courtney replies as she maintains her death grip on the paper.
Just then, Torrance comes flying around the corner into Courtney, sending her and Courtney's stuff flying. "Oh God Court, I am so sorry," she mumbles blushing as all three girls bend down to pick their books up. "I was looking for you to tell you that we have to train our newest member," she says with a smirk.
"It's no problem," she replies in regards to her stuff. "We need to go now?" She asks, glancing at a smiling Faith.
"Yeah, sorry," Torrance replies looking between Courtney and Faith.
"Um, okay. Bye Faith," Courtney waves as she runs off to help train the new girl.
Faith just smirks to herself as she watches the two blondes run to the gym. She shakes her head and happens to glance down and see a piece of folded paper on the ground with 'Courtney' scrawled across it in large bubble letters. She retrieves it from the floor and looks up, but Courtney has already disappeared. "Oh well, I'll just give it to her next time I see her," she shrugs to herself as she continues walking down the hallway.
After all of her classes, Faith is strolling towards her car, not thinking about the note Courtney dropped earlier. Nope, not thinking about it at all. Yeah right. Faith snorts to herself.
"So, I can't train with you today," Missy tells her distracted sister. When Faith doesn't respond, she sees the note in her hand. "Ooh, what's this?" She asks as she snatches the note from her hand.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Faith asks as she finally takes notice of Missy. "Courtney dropped that in the hallway," she told her, as if that was somehow incentive to not read it. "That's invasion of privacy," she points out as Missy opens it up to read it.
"Since when do you care?" Missy snarks back as she starts reading the contents quietly to herself. She then looks up at Faith with a smirk. "You're right, you probably shouldn't read that," she teases mock-gravely as she carefully folds it back up and hands it back to Faith before turning around and walking off.
"Hey, where are you going? You really need to train," she calls out to her little sister as she starts to follow her.
Missy turns around and looks at Faith with a smirk. "I have cheerleading practice," she replies, trying not to sound sarcastic about it, but suddenly looking forward to giving Courtney a really hard time.
"Wait, you're what?" Faith asks incredulously as she grinds to a halt.
"You heard me," Missy replies with a mischievous grin. Oh boy, now I get to torture Courtney. She smirks to herself and flounces off to her first practice.
Faith is standing, stupefied in the parking lot for nearly a minute before dropping her stuff in the car and going to the gym after her sister. Of course she has the mysterious note with her, for no other reason than to give it back to Courtney. Not even Faith honestly believes that.
As she enters the gym, she sees Courtney shooting daggers at Missy, who is seated on the bleachers with a smirk and begins to wonder if joining in the festivities was really a good idea. It was a good idea in theory. Faith shrugs and goes to sit down in the bleachers behind Missy so that her sister doesn't notice her.
Missy doesn't notice Faith walk in and sit down, but Whitney does. And Whitney also doesn't hesitate to notify her friend, who's jittery enough after having lost 'the note', as well. "Hey Courtney," she says with a cheerful, no pun intended, smile.
"Yeah, what?" Courtney asks in a short tone, which Whitney ignores.
"Look who showed up for practice," she states as she nods towards the bleachers behind Missy.
Courtney blushes a deep red, which Faith notices from her position and begins to wonder. "Oh please no, please no," she silently pleads. Missy smirks and, judging by the other two's actions and words, she now knows Faith is seated behind her.
Faith, for her part, is clueless. She reads Courtney's lips and her attention is drawn to the note in her hands. Now, not even being able to help herself, she inconspicuously reads over the note.
C,
Since when did you start liking girls anyways? Not that there's anything wrong with it…but Faith?
W
Faith rolls her eyes, not surprised at Whitney's crack-headed conclusions. She smirks, but then reads Courtney's response to Whitney.
W,
Faith is great and I do really like her. It's not like I can help it. I mean, she wears all that leather and…goddamn it Whitney!
She is staring down at the note, dumbfounded. Faith blinks rapidly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry or both. When she looks back up she sees that the cheerleaders are getting ready to start. Courtney makes eye contact with her, but then quickly looks away.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to help yourself," Missy says in a sing-song voice as she leans back to look at her sister.
Faith glares at Missy for a moment before her gaze softens. "This is just too weird, even for me…and I slay vampires," she states warily.
"Yeah. Courtney, go figure," Missy smirks. "But, then again I didn't see Buffy either…I guess my gaydar must be off," she shrugs mischievously.
"What?" Faith asks, trying to control the volume of her voice.
"Yours must be off too," Missy muses with a wide grin.
"Are you trying to make my life difficult or does it just come naturally?" Faith asks, frustrated.
"Faith, come on. We come from the same gene pool, you know the answer to that," Missy replies, trying not to laugh.
"But I'm your own flesh and blood. We're Slayers, we have to stick together in the spirit of sisterhood yo," Faith replies.
Missy looks at her seriously for a moment, but can't come up with any kind of response. Then she and Faith just start laughing their asses off, much to the displeasure of the rest of the squad.
"Missy!" Torrance barks at the newest teammate.
"Sorry," Missy replies feeling sufficiently chastised.
"Yeah, that was my bad. I'll leave Missy alone now," Faith smirks at the irate cheerleaders as she stands up to leave, winking at Courtney, who blushes. "Could you give this back to her for me?" She asks Missy.
"Yeah," she replies.
"I mean it," Faith states sternly.
"Okay, I promise," Missy grumbles back.
"Good. See you later then," Faith smiles as she leaves.
Back in the parking lot, Faith is preparing to get into her car when along comes none other than Buffy Summers herself.
"Never could really picture you as the academic type," Buffy comments as she comes over to Faith.
Faith slams the door shut before entering and turns to Buffy. "Why are you still here?" She asks angrily. "What do you want, a written statement saying I won't hunt down your family and friends and try to kill them?" She shouts.
Buffy looks down at her feet. "I'm sorry," she mumbles.
Faith sighs. "No, I'm the one that should be sorry. It's just been a long day," she apologizes. "I mean, finding out Missy joined the cheerleading squad is pretty traumatizing," she laughs.
"You're kidding," Buffy smirks.
"Go to the gym if you don't believe me," Faith chuckles as she shakes her head.
"This I've got to see," she grins back as she and Faith make their way back to the gym. Once there, they look in through the door and find Missy and Courtney shouting at one another.
"I will kick your ass from here to next Christmas!" Missy yells.
"I would like to see you try bitch!" Courtney shouts back in reply.
"Hey! What's going on here?" Faith intervenes.
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Uh oh. I sense trouble is afoot. Now that my computer is working again, the next chapter won't be nearly as long. For all explanations and apologies please see 'Chasing Shadows' chapter 8.
