DISCLAIMER: Nothing but the story is mine. All hail Joss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tara Maclay shifted uneasily in her chair, fiddling with the latches on her flute case. She just moved to Sunnydale, and today was her first day of band camp, two weeks before classes start. Her old high school only had a concert band, no marching. And now she was waiting to meet her new director. So she was understandably nervous.

The office door opened, and a middle aged man in a tweed jacket came in, followed by a pretty redhead in a pink 'hello kitty' t-shirt.

Tara stood, smiling nervously. The man held out his hand, introducing himself quickly.

"Hello, you must be Tara," he said with a kind, and surprisingly British, voice. "I'm Mr. Giles, your new band director."

"It's n-nice to meet you," she replied, shaking his hand.

"Please, sit down," he gestured to the chair she had just vacated, then removed his jacket and sat on the edge of his desk in front of her. She watched as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and rolled the sleeves up his forearms. "You're a senior this year, correct?"

"Yes."

"And your last school had no marching band?"

"Yes. I mean--no. It didn't."

Mr. Giles smiled kindly. "And so I imagine you're quite nervous."

Tara sheepishly returned his smile. "Yes."

"Well, you needn't be. You'll get the hang of it in no time. And you won't be alone. The incoming freshmen have as little knowledge as you do. This is Willow Rosenberg," he gestured to the other girl. "She is the flute section leader. I thought she might show you around, introduce you to everyone. Willow?"

"Hi!" she said cheerily, waving a hand quickly. "It's always great to get another flute player. We're so quiet compared to the rest of the band."

Tara smiled. She thinks she's going to like Willow.

"Well, we'll be starting here shortly. Why don't you two get going."

"'Kay. C'mon…Tara, was it?" Tara nodded. "'Kay. I'll be your tour guide for the day," she said in an official tone as she opened the office door with a flourish, waving Tara ahead of her.

"So," began Willow, hooking her arm through Tara's and almost dragging her down the hall, "how long have you played?"

"Um, s-since I was little. I think fourth grade?"

"Yeah," Willow nodded. "That's about when I started, too. My mom wanted me to play an instrument as soon as I could, she said it was 'empowering' and 'would help expand my mind,'" she said dramatically, eliciting a giggle from Tara.

They turned a corner and came to a set of double doors. Willow pushed them open, revealing a huge carpeted room with high ceilings, the walls dotted with sounding boards to prevent echo. "This is our band room."

"Wow. It's so nice."

"Yeah, this entire building is only two years old. The school actually decided to put some money into the music and arts programs instead of sports. This is where all the band, orchestra, and chorale classes are."

"That's so neat."

"I know, we were all so happy. Our old band room was getting seriously ragged. Well, I guess we'll start here. This," she arched an arm above her head, swinging it down to gesture the entire room, "is where all rehearsals are, both marching and concert band. This is where we meet for class time during the school year. And they," she swept her arm out in front of them, "are the band."

Tara watched the group of about fifty to sixty people positioning their chairs, retrieving instruments, setting up music stands, all the time talking and laughing with each other. Now she was nervous again.

Willow nudged her gently. "Hey. It's okay. We're all pretty much one big family around here, but we adopt often," she grinned. Tara gave her a grateful smile.

"Well," she continued, "I'll point out all the section leaders," and proceeded to rattle off their names, pointing them out of the crowd. "Okay, well now that the boring official stuff is out of the way, I can introduce you to some of the best people you'll ever meet: the Scooby Gang."

Tara's 'huh?' was cut off as Willow began shouting towards the trumpet section, trying to get someone's attention.

"Hey Xander, Anya!" she yelled over the din of chatting and instruments warming up. A dark haired boy and the girl next to him stood up.

"Yeah?" he yelled back.

"I want you to meet Tara! She's a new senior in flutes!"

"Hey, Tara, nice to meet ya! This is my girlfriend, Anya!" he reached a hand above the girl's head, pointing straight down to her.

"Hello!" yelled Anya.

Tara merely waved at them, afraid she'd start stuttering if she yelled back at them. They both smiled at her, then sat back down and continued setting up.

"They're great," said Willow. "I've known Xander since we were in kindergarten. He had the privilege of being my first crush," she smiled goofily. "Anyway, him and Anya have been together pretty much since they met freshman year. She takes some getting used to."

"What do you mean?"

"She's kinda--well, no, not 'kinda'--she's very blunt. But not in a mean way or anything. That's just the way she is. We think maybe it's cause she's from New York. But, if she suddenly shares details on her and Xander's love life, don't be shocked. It's a regular thing."

"Okay," Tara laughed.

"Let's see, who's next? Ooh, there's Buffy," she said as she pointed to a petite blond coming out of one of the doors in the back of the room. "She just came out of the locker room, by the way. I guess I'm still supposed to be giving you the tour. Anyway, she's captain of the color guard team. She's the only senior on the team who's been on all four years. She's super cool."

Tara watched as Buffy sat on the floor and began changing the flags on the poles from yellow to blue. She continued watching as a young man with bleached hair quickly snuck up behind Buffy, and used the drumsticks he was holding to do a rapid succession of drum rolls on her head.

"OW!" screamed Buffy. She turned quickly and used one of the flag poles to hit the boy on the back of the knees, sending him tumbling to the carpet. "You little shit! I'm gonna kick your ass!" she yelled, then proceeded to literally kick said ass.

"OW! Bloody bitch!" yelled the boy with a cockney accent.

Tara turned an alarmed face to Willow, and alarm quickly melted to confusion as she saw Willow's expressionless face. She turned back to see others' reaction, only to find that everyone was ignoring the pair wrestling on the floor.

"Wha--?"

"Don't worry. They do this all the time," remarked Willow dryly. "Let me give you a brief history of Buffy and Spike."

"Spike?"

"The bleached guy. His name is actually William, but he insisted on people calling him Spike. Even teachers call him that. Anyway. He moved here from England in the middle of our freshman year, and it was pretty much hate at first sight with them. It didn't help that Spike got into a fight with Buffy's boyfriend at the time, and pretty thoroughly kicked his patootie, but that's not really why they hate each other."

"Then why?"

"Ya know, when we figure it out, we'll let you know. I mean, the gang liked him. He's funny in that sarcastic kind of way. But any chance that they get to make each other's life miserable, they take." They watched as Buffy managed to get Spike in a headlock, flipping him onto his stomach and grinding his face into the carpet. Spike straightened his arms beneath him, bucking her off him before he tackled her.

Tara couldn't help but laugh at the display. "Maybe it's a case of 'my lady doth protest too much,'" she smiled, which quickly faded as she saw Willow's serious face.

"Um, no. Not so much. I know that cliché looks like it would work here, but no. They're not playing around. They really want to inflict pain on each other."

"O-oh."

"Yeah. They've been suspended I don't know how many times. They had one of their worst fights sophomore year. Buffy came away with a split lip and dislocated shoulder, and Spike had a broken nose and a black eye. She gave him that scar on his left eyebrow."

"Oh my god. Why hasn't--"

"The school done anything about it?" Tara nodded. "They tried. Put them into counseling and everything, but we think that made it worse. They just got into fights in the counselors office. No, we think the school is just assuming crash positions and waiting for them to graduate."

"That's just crazy."

Willow shrugged. "Amazingly enough, you get used to it. Especially me, Xander, and Anya, cause we're all friends with both of them, but they're not with each other. So we get to deal with them socially as well as in school. It's actually become almost a staple. Their constant bantering is just the soundtrack of the Scooby Gang."

"If you say so--"

"Oh, for god's sake!" came the sound of Mr. Giles voice. "Will you two bloody break it up!" he yelled at Buffy and Spike, who immediately separated and stood up. "Honestly, I'm amazed you two have only been suspended twice."

"Thrice," they responded in unison, then turned to glare at each other.

Mr. Giles rolled his eyes. "Just get set up. We're starting."

The two gave each other one last parting glare, then went to their respective areas. Mr. Giles stepped up to the conductor's podium, then picked up a loudspeaker and spoke into it.

"Welcome to the Sunnydale High School Marching Razorbacks. Now shut up."

The band as a whole giggled, then quieted down and gave their director their attention.

He set the loudspeaker down. "If everyone would find their seats." Willow pulled Tara over to the flute section, and they sat down next to each other. "Thank you. For any of you who don't know me, my name is Mr. Giles, but you may call my Giles if you wish. Everyone already does in this barbaric country." More giggles. "Now I'm only going to say these things once. Yes, I am from England, but I always wanted to teach music in the states, so here I am. I've lived and taught here for six years. Lastly, and most importantly, those of you who have met Spike, our percussion section leader, probably noticed that we share similar accents. However," began counting the points off his fingers, "we never met before he moved here, I am from Bath and he is from London, and we are most certainly not related."

"Thank god!" came Spike's voice from the back of the room.

The band members laughed, and Giles rolled his eyes. "At any rate," he continued, "the schedule for these next two weeks will be fairly tight. We have ten days, eight hours each, until school starts, and our first home game is the first Friday of the school year. That means we have fifteen days to learn our first show." A collective groan came from the band. "Yes, I'm not thrilled about it, either. Now, class meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from eight to nine-thirty. However, we will also meet for zero hour. For those who don't know what that is, it means that you are expected to meet here at seven a.m., five days a week, every week until marching season is over. We will meet in here, then proceed to the football field to learn coordinates. Now, for this first show, we'll only be learning three songs, but the show we're taking to contest is five songs. You'll all receive a copy of the year's schedule at the end of the day."

Willow leaned in towards Tara. "This is the really boring part, where he goes over all the rules and policies and uniform stuff. I'll fill you in later. Now I get to tell you all the juicy band secrets," she whispered conspiratorially.

"Okay," Tara whispered back.

"You see the farm boy standing up in the front, shuffling papers?"

"Yeah."

"That's our drum major, Riley, and Buffy's ex-boyfriend."

"The one Spike beat up?"

"No that was Angel. Long story short for them: Angel and Buffy started dating in middle school, then got really serious in high school. He was her first everything: first love, first kiss, first…you know." Tara blushed and nodded. "Anyway, they were really deep for just being in high school. Then at the end of freshman year, his family was moving to L.A., and instead of trying to do the long distance thing, he broke up with her quote 'for her own good' and pretty much broke her heart. She was really messed up for awhile after that, and she had this rebound fling with this guy from another school named Parker…ugh, total poop head. Anyway, when Spike moved here, he was this Big Bad who had a reputation to protect, and Angel was a pretty tough guy himself, so they butted heads a lot. It finally boiled over and Spike beat him up after he said some pretty nasty things."

"Wow. Sounds dramatic."

"It was. Very soap opera-y. Anyway, after Buffy finally got over Angel, she started dating Riley. They went out the second half of sophomore year and into junior year. Buffy was really happy with him, cause she thought she'd never find love after Angel, you know? Then, right before our junior prom, she found out that he had cheated on her with--get this--Spike's girlfriend, Drusilla." Tara gasped, getting lost in the story. "Yeah, so that really tore her up. Riley said that he didn't think Buffy loved him at all, that she would never get over Angel. He tried to make it sound like it was her fault that he cheated on her. Anyway, Buffy so dumped him after that. It was actually the one time when she and Spike got along. Kind of an 'enemy of my enemy' situation."

"So what happened to Spike's girlfriend?"

"Oh, Drusilla. Yeah, she was one interesting person. Kinda gothic, but really more like just plain weird. She talked to herself a lot, and we always wondered if she was on something, but Spike was head over heels for her. They'd hooked up almost as soon as he moved here, and he did anything for her. But she broke his heart when he found out she'd been cheating on him, and it turned out it had started way before Riley. Drusilla left quite a wake behind her. But soon after they broke up, she dropped out of school. She was never in class anyway. We don't know what happened to her after that."

"Um, what about you? Do you have a boyfriend?" Tara asked somewhat nervously.

"Ugh, oh boy, here comes another story. I was pretty shy and quiet freshman year, but then sophomore year this guy actually asked me out. His name was Oz and he was a year ahead of us. We met here in band, he was the percussion section leader before Spike. Anyway, yeah we had the big love. But he graduated last year and moved away to go to college. I thought we would stay together, but he told me that he needed to 'find himself,' and he could only do that alone. Again with the heartbreak. So I'm pretty sure I've sworn off guys for awhile."

"Oh," Tara blushed.

"Uh-oh, Giles is giving us the hairy eyeball. Better pay attention."

"As I was saying," Giles continued, "we will have sectionals until two, break for lunch for an hour, then go outside to learn the show from three until six. Those who were here last year remember the fiasco of having outside practice during the first half of the day--"

"Yeah!" yelled Xander. "Poor wittle Spikey burnt his lilywhite British ass!" The band members giggled.

"Well you wouldn't have ever noticed how burnt my ass was if you weren't starin' at it all the bloody time, you great poufter!" Spike taunted back, causing the band to erupt into full-fledged laughter.

"Don't mind them," Willow said through her giggles. "They act like they hate each other, but they're actually buddies."

"All right, everyone. Off to the practice rooms with you. I'll come around to each section to check on your progress, and to answer any questions you may have." Giles stepped down from the podium as the band gathered their music and instruments, and began filing out the doors.

"Where are we going?" Tara asked as she walked beside Willow.

"To the practice rooms. The middle of the building is this whole series of soundproof booths. They really went all out when they built this place."

"Wow, I guess so."

Four hours later, Giles' voice came through the intercom speakers in each room, telling them it was time to break for lunch.

"C'mon," said Willow. "Now you can really get to know everyone better. Did you pack a lunch?"

"Oh, no, I didn't know I was supposed to."

"It's okay. You can either pack a lunch and eat here, or go home or to McDonalds or something. But for those of us who are vehically challenged, lunchboxes are pretty much the way to go. Don't worry though. We'll all donate a little something to the 'feed Tara' foundation," Willow giggled.

"Thanks," Tara laughed.

"Hey guys," Willow greeted the group that was sitting on the floor in one of the corners of the band room. Xander, Anya, and Buffy looked up and gave a collective 'hey.'

"So, first day back to the grind. How's everyone looking so far?" asked Willow.

"I think the team is going to be really good this year," said Buffy. "We have a lot of returning upperclassmen, and the freshman are catching on really quick. Almost too fast for me to choreograph the routines."

"Yeah, way to go with the big responsibility Buffster. I can't believe you're doing so much…making up the routines, picking out the uniforms and flags. You're a regular leader!" Xander exclaimed.

"Yes, we'll be very surprised if you don't combust from all the pressure," Anya added.

"Gee, thanks."

"Your welcome," beamed Anya.

The gang continued chatting and eating, and it was decided that Tara was now an adopted Scoobie. The hour seemed to fly by, and soon enough it was time to start getting ready to go outside.

"Oh, dammit," groaned Buffy. "I left my water bottle at home. Not cool for practicing in ninety degree weather. I'm gonna go get some water out of the vending machine. I'll catch up with you guys on the field?"

"Alrighty," responded Xander.

"'Kay, be out it a few." Buffy turned and went out into the hallway, heading towards the vending machines. When she heard the door shut behind her, she turned around and went into the practice rooms area. She walked slowly through the corridor, her eyes searching.

She yelped as a hand shot out of one of the rooms, gripping her wrist and dragging her inside, the door closing after her.

"What took you so bloody long?" ground out Spike, before he crushed his mouth to hers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi everyone! So what do you think so far of my very first AU Buffy fic? Don't ask me where I got the idea, it just happened. Actually, most of the ideas are taken directly from my experiences in my high school marching band. Anyway, I know, not very much Spuffiness, but as you can probably tell, its coming. Oh, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist having Willow play flute…just my little ode to American Pie. One last thing: for anybody who's actually reading my other story "XOver," I'm sorry about the lack of updates. It seems not many people are interested in reading it, so I'm just going to finish writing the story and post it all at once, which will take god knows how long. Well, that's all for now.

Yapatchalata!

Coquine