Harmony and Aura waited until cheerleading practice the next afternoon to confront Cordelia. As Cordelia rounded up her practice clothes, they flanked her, standing on either side of her locker.
"So...are you at least going to tell us his name?" Aura asked accusingly.
"Who?" Cordelia asked, feigning innocence.
"Don't act like you don't know who I'm talking about. Refresh her memory, Harm."
Harmony sighed, irritated. "You know. The guy? Who was talking to you yesterday afternoon? The cute one wearing the glasses?"
"Oh, him?" Cordelia scoffed. "That's just Wesley." She shrugged her shoulders and carried her clothes to the nearest bathroom stall. Closing the door behind her, she thought she had acquired some privacy, but Aura and Harmony had followed her, standing outside the door while she changed.
"Just Wesley? Care to elaborate?" Aura asked. Obviously, she was not going to give up until she got the answers she was looking for.
"You know, you two should stop interrogating me and start changing for practice. The coach will be very upset if you guys show up late," Cordelia countered, determined not to divulge her new secret to anyone, especially the gossip hounds.
"I think she'll let it slide this time, don't you, Harm?" Harmony nodded in agreement while Aura pressed on. "Now tell us everything."
Cordelia stepped out of the stall clutching her school clothes. "I really do not see what the big deal is here."
"You've never kept a secret from us before," Harmony replied, looking slightly hurt.
Cordelia sighed. "I'm sorry, OK? Trust me when I say that it's not what the two of you think. Wesley and I are not dating."
"Then what are the two of you doing together?" Aura asked, tilting her head to one side.
"Well," Cordelia whispered, "Can I trust you to keep a secret?"
The girls giggled and Aura replied, "Of course!"
The three of them huddled together in a circle while Cordelia looked around, making sure no one was listening. When she was confident that she had their attention, she looked at them and said, "Wesley's my acting coach."
"What?" Aura exclaimed while Harmony looked disappointed in general. "That's the big secret? You're taking acting lessons?"
"Shhh..." Cordelia quieted them. "I don't want the whole world to know!"
Aura huffed and turned the corner to her locker. Cordelia smiled at Harmony as if nothing was going on and began to place her school clothes back into her own locker.
As Harmony turned to her own locker, a question crossed her mind. "So, Cordy?"
"Hmm?"
"You're really not dating this Wesley guy?"
Cordelia looked at Harmony suspiciously, then looked back to her locker. "I'm really not. Why?"
"I was just wondering...if maybe I could call him?"
Before Cordelia could reply with a hearty and meaningful, "no", Aura began screaming. Cordelia rushed around the corner to see what was happening.
"Oh my God..." she said, trailing off, her hand to her mouth in horror.
"Cordy, what's wrong?" Harmony asked, turning the corner.
Aura was standing on a bench, screaming over a dead body that lay in the floor. It had been stuffed in her locker. Harmony fainted.
Cordelia stepped over Harmony to get to the phone in her purse.
"911, do you have an emergency to report?"
'Well, duh! What do you think I wanted? To invite you to a tea party?" Cordelia asked sharply.
"If you have an emergency to report, please do so at this time," said the dispatcher, his voice devoid of all emotion."
Cordelia could barely hear the dispatcher for Aura's screaming. She stuck her head around the wall of lockers and chided her for screaming.
"Aura—shut up! I'm trying to get us some help!" When Aura had quieted, Cordelia continued. "Ok—an extremely dead guy just fell out of my friend's locker. She's hysterical, as you can probably hear, and I've got another friend who has passed out on the floor."
"Miss, what is your location?"
"What kind of question is that? Don't you have some sort of tracing device on that phone system of yours?" Cordelia was slowly getting more and more agitated.
"Indeed we do, Miss, but I see that you are calling on a cell phone, and as that is a mobile number, there is no registered address for it. Now may I please have your location?"
"Sunnydale High School," Cordelia said, slightly defeated.
"Thank you. I'm now routing the police and EMS to your location. Is there anything else I can assist you with today?"
"No, I don't think the body is going anywhere," Cordelia remarked sarcastically as she moved toward Aura.
"Thank you for calling 911," the dispatcher said before hanging up.
Cordelia clicked her phone off and grabbed a shaking Aura by the hand, helping her off the bench. "Calm down, alright? The police are on their way, and so is an ambulance."
Aura nodded her head, and Cordelia continued. "Right now, I need you to help me lift Harmony and take her into the gym so Ms. Rhinquist can make sure she's okay."
"Cordy, I don't know..."
"Listen to me! I am not staying in here with a dead body and I certainly don't intend to leave an unconscious Harmony in here, either."
As they made their way towards Harmony, the cheerleading coach burst through the doors.
"What was all that screaming about?" She said as she surveyed the locker room. When she saw the body, she stopped in her tracks. "What have you girls done?"
"Nothing, Coach," Cordelia began.
"He was stuffed in my locker, and Harmony fainted when she saw it," Aura said, beginning to shake again, thinking about what had happened.
"We need to call the police," Ms. Rhinquist said, who was beginning to get nervous.
"Covered. They're on their way," Cordelia added.
Ms. Rhinquist exhaled. "Ok, then. Natalie, Marie...the two of you should go to the front of the school and send the police this way. The rest of you can go home. I'll stay here with these three."
When Wesley drove up to the school to meet Cordelia, police cars had surrounded the gym. Cordelia was standing out in front speaking to a female officer.
"Listen—it's like I told your friend—I was putting clothes in my locker when Aura started screaming. When I turned the corner, there was this dead guy on the floor."
"Cordelia, what's going on?" Wesley asked when he had reached her side.
"I'm sorry, sir, but this is a crime scene. I'm afraid I can't allow you to come near the witnesses," the officer interjected before Cordelia could answer him.
"Oh, please. He's fine! Besides, we're done here," Cordelia told the officer. Turning to Wesley, she exclaimed, "Wesley—thank goodness you're here. There was a dead guy stuffed in Aura's locker. She was absolutely hysterical. I thought I was going to have to slap her. And of course, Harmony fainted, so I was forced to deal with this situation alone."
The police officer tapped Cordelia on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not quite through questioning you."
"Well, I'm through talking, so I guess we're finished here," Cordelia replied without missing a best. "Now shoo!"
Cordelia made shooing motions with her hands to demonstrate her point, and the police officer walked away, confused as to how she lost control. Cordelia took Wesley by the arm and began walking back toward his car.
"I'm telling you, Wesley, it was horrific. I've never seen a dead body in my whole life. And Aura was just standing there, screaming her head off..."
"Um, Cordelia, if I may interrupt..."
"What?" Cordelia stopped abruptly and looked at Wesley, stunned that he still insisted on interrupting her.
"How did he die?"
"I don't know," Cordelia answered, disgusted. "I can't believe it. I'm in the middle of a crisis, and all you can do is ask questions about the guy that's already dead." She exhaled loudly to further illustrate her frustration.
"I'm curious—were there any marks on the body?" Wesley unhooked his arm from Cordelia and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Cordelia's face contorted. "Morbid much? I didn't inspect the body."
Wesley sighed. "Cordelia, as a Watcher, morbid is my line of work. Yours, too. It hasn't occurred to you that this could have been a vampire attack?"
"No, I was a little busy with the police."
Wesley took his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the passenger's side. "We'll begin training tonight and begin patrolling tomorrow. If he was bitten and turned, we'll know by then."
He opened the door for Cordelia, who looked rather impressed by this act.
"Thanks," she half-muttered, stunned, as she slid in the seat.
"Is something wrong?"
"Just not a lot of guys who open doors for girls nowadays."
Wes raised his eyebrows and gave Cordelia a half-smile. "Maybe you've been seeing the wrong guys."