"You're kidding me right?" Cordelia exasperatingly said to her father in a hushed whisper as she ran a hand through her long, brown locks, trying to get some sense of control over her emotions.

A flicker of guilt passed fleetingly through her father's dark eyes but left just as soon, leaving no trace behind. Will lifted his hand and placed it on his daughter's shoulder, choosing his words carefully so he wouldn't make matters worse. "Let's try to be civil about this."

"I'm gone three months and I come back to see some strange woman in our house. How do you expect me to be civil when you kept something like this from me!"

Sighing, Will ran a hand along his face, obviously trying to keep himself from losing control over his temper. He'd planned to tell her over dinner, to slowly ease into the fact that he was dating someone and had strong feelings for the woman. But no, Cordelia, his always-unpredictable daughter, was the one who surprised him, not the other way around. "I didn't keep it from you. And she's not strange. She's sweet, creative, smart and beautiful."

Now it was Cordelia's turn to sigh, losing part of her frustration with her father. "I never said she wasn't. She seems nice but dad, you gotta take a minute and think. How would you react if you came home after a trip to discover I had a guy in the house."

"That won't be happening any time soon," he answered with a low voice, his paternal instincts distracting him from the real discussion. "This is different, Cordelia. I didn't want to mention this to you because I didn't know, at the time, if it was going anywhere. What I'm trying to say is I didn't want you to have crazy notions of having a step-mother when really, I had no idea if there was a future with me and the dating world."

"I never would have had thought of having a stepmother," Cordelia assured him, finding it harder and harder to be frustrated with her father. It was his life and she couldn't tell him what to do, but she just wanted to be included in his big decisions, especially ones that affected the both of them. "But now I do."

Cordelia glanced down the hall into the kitchen where Sandra was, standing by the island and reading the paper. She looked completely comfortable and settled in a kitchen that wasn't hers. For a moment, Cordelia's hands clenched into fists. Maybe it was her territorial side or perhaps she was just jealous, but she hated seeing a woman that wasn't her or her own mother looking like she belonged in their home.

Shaking herself out of it and placing her hands on her hips, Cordelia bit her bottom lip, hesitating for a moment. Finally, she rolled her eyes, looked away from her father and shrugged. "It's your life. I guess I just didn't like being left out."

Will nodded, reaching an agreement with his daughter for the moment. He looked at her hard for a minute before she finally looked right back at him, a small grin passing over his face. "How 'bout dinner? I know you're hungry."

No thanks. I had a snickers bar on the bus and I don't want to overeat. Cordelia wished she could just be the bitch for the night and go up to her room, but to keep things civil with her father, she shrugged her shoulders and half-heartedly nodded. "Sure. Why not."

When she sluggishly followed behind her father, letting her limbs hang low, Will Chase grabbed his daughter's arm and made her walk faster, giving her a look that clearly said: Behave.

Sandra looked up from the paper before they even entered the kitchen or made a sound, plastering a big smile on her face. She tucked a few strands of her dark hair behind her ears and took on the role of the innocent lady trying to make a good impression.

Cordelia rolled her eyes, and not for the last time.

"Your father and I made spaghetti."

"Spaghetti? Wow, you really went all out."

Elbowing Cordelia slightly, Will cleared his throat and smirked at Sandra. "Sandra made it, really. She adds a 'special touch' to it."

Cordelia half-rolled her eyes and gagged at the same time. "I'm sure she does." Maybe she wasn't trying hard enough, but she sure as hell wasn't coming close to even feigning politeness. The words were coming out but the way they were coming off weren't in the kind of tone that one would expect from a civilized, polite teenager.

Which I'm not, so it all sort of balances out. Cordelia strained a plainly bogus smile and offered to bring the bowl of lettuce to the table, while all the while thinking to herself that she would have to keep herself entertained for the evening. Just nod along and pretend your listening. While that happens you'll play reruns of F.R.I.E.N.D.S over and over in your head.

"You're kidding!" Willow gasped, shocked at what her friend had just informed her of.

"I wish," Cordelia grumbled, flipping channels on her TV as she lay flat on her stomach on her bed, regretting even eating the spaghetti. She wanted it to taste awful, to have another reason to not trust, to not accept that woman. But it didn't. It tasted fantabulous. "They met at their weekly AA meetings."

A moment of silence passed, but only one and Willow cleared her throat, uncertainty in her voice. "AA meetings? You never...said anything about..."

Cordelia shut her eyes, cursing herself mentally for letting that slip. Willow was her best friend and she still hadn't wanted to tell her that her father had a drinking problem. It wasn't that she didn't trust Willow; it was the fact that she didn't trust herself. Would she even be able to open up emotionally about her father's persistent drinking problems? It wasn't a topic she wanted to discuss, the thoughts and reminders in her mind enough to handle already.

"I'm sorry, Will. I just...I just didn't want to put the knowledge of it on your shoulders. Already too damn hard to handle by myself."

"I won't tell anyone, if that's what you want." Willow's voice sounded squeakily on the other line, sincerity filling every word. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. But still, if you don't want anyone to-"

"Thanks, Will."

"So..."

Cordelia cleared her throat and returned to her 'rant' mode. "Anyways. I was sitting at that dinner table, eating the food she cooked when she decides to tell me how wonderful my father was and how beautiful our house is. I love flattery, if given by the right person, but the lady is just telling me what I already know!"

"Maybe she was trying to-"

"Suck up? Exactly!"

"Well, I was gonna say 'be polite' but yours is better. Was dinner bad?"

Seeing that nothing was on, Cordelia turned off her TV with a growl of frustration. "There was a lot of gagging, a lot of inner-mocking. And I swear my eyes are killin' me from so much eye-rolling."

Willow laughed over the phone. "I'm not taking sides here, but maybe you should give her a chance. Unless she's evil, I don't think she can be all that bad. You didn't get any vamp vibes off of her, did you?"

"Nah, nothin'. Didn't really think she was, either. She was too tan."

"Fake-tan?

"Looked natural to me," Cordelia admitted, her voice seething. "Maybe it's bothering me more than I thought it would. Maybe with this woman in my dad's life...I guess it just opens my eyes to the fact that my parents aren't getting back together."

"Yeah...I guess you can say that. Sorry I can't really say anything to make you feel better. My parents may be nonexistent, but they're doing it together. Ew...I promise to never say 'doing it together' in reference to my parents again."

Cordelia laughed, something she wholeheartedly welcomed. There was nothing more uplifting then a quick chat with Willow. "Day after tomorrow is the first day of school..."

Willow didn't sound as disappointed. "With school we can get distracted easier and with all that's going on in your life and the lack of things happening in mine, we'll be much better off."

"If you say so."

"Which I do. So that makes it true, right?"

"Yup."

"Good," Willow sounded as confident as a mouse trying to steal from a large cat. "I gotta go, it's getting late."

"Me too. 'Night, Willow."

"Goodnight, Cordelia."

Swish-swashing the liquid inside her mouth, Cordelia winced and nearly gagged at the horrible taste of the mouthwash she was trying to clean her mouth with. She bent forward and spat the rest of it into the sink, washing it down and feeling extremely relieved to have it off her taste buds.

Taking a sip of water and wiping her hands off, Cordelia looked at herself in the bathroom mirror for a moment, wondering if her mind had any plans of replaying the damned nightmare again in her dreams. She knew it would, as it relentlessly did every night.

Sighing, she turned and left the bathroom, absently throwing her hand along the wall and catching the light switch, turning it off, in one motion. Walking down the hall and into her bedroom, Cordelia pointedly avoided even glancing downstairs or in her father's bedroom, tiptoeing to insure silence. There was no chance in hell she would be having a long, emotional talk with her father. Not when it was late and she was already in her pajamas, ready to sleep and hopefully have serene dreams.

It was a scary notion to think that she had no control over her dreams. No one really ever sat down and ordered their brain to dream what they wanted, but the thoughts were usually there, in someone's subconscious. Their deepest desires or fears perhaps, which didn't fit in with what Cordelia was seeing every night in the blanket of darkness that surrounded her. She was afraid, but of what she didn't know, which seemed just as frustratingly odd as everything else that went on in her life.

Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind, she closed her door with a soft thud and turned to pounce on her bed and bury herself in the familiar, warm comforters that she had missed all summer.

Only when she turned around, she saw a familiar, handsome face by her window. It was Angel, a slight seriousness in his presence yet the contained giddiness at the sight of her just below that broody surface of his. The intensity usually found in his eyes was there too and brought a fluttering feeling to Cordelia's stomach.

"Angel," Cordelia breathed, her voice leaving her for a moment. The only discomfort in her entire body was there because she was in just her pajamas, which were thin and probably see-throughable by Angel's acute vision.

Three months away from Angel had obviously affected her more than she had thought it would; which was proven by the overwhelming wave of happiness and relief she was drowning in at the sight of him.

But he wasn't there to just say hi, to greet her and welcome her back and she knew it by the look in his eyes. Usually he would involuntarily abandon any sense of seriousness when around her, becoming good company instead of the bearer of bad news. She saw that seriousness in his eyes and her heart sunk.

"Hey," he rasped, his voice husky. Angel's body moved an inch away from the windowsill, maybe to hug her or to lessen the space between his body and hers, but he caught himself and stood still. "How was the rest of your summer?"

"Fine..." Cordelia allowed herself to go along with whatever he was up to. Small talk wasn't her specialty and she definitely didn't prefer it, but if Angel had something important he was leading into, she was willing to wait a minute or two longer. "Yours?"

"I'd say particularly uneventful. I'm sure it was nothing compared to the fun you had in Los Angeles," Angel shrugged naturally, his modesty slipping through the cracks of his emotional defense. He always slipped up and allowed a part of himself he never allowed anyone to see to come forth with Cordelia. She accepted him for what he was and he appreciated it. "Was it good to see your mom?"

Cordelia nodded, inching towards him, but making it look as if she were moving to her bed. She wanted nothing more than to run to him and hug him, to have him hug her. Their last conversation didn't end so well but she had gotten over it the next morning and had wanted to talk to him again.

Willow and Xander were her closest friends but with Angel it was different. He was her confidant, someone she could go to and feel better within seconds of his hand touching hers. Sometimes she didn't understand his intentions or her own feelings for him, but the consistency of their relationship was enough. No matter how tough things got they'd be there for each other.

"It was...nice. Different but nice. I got used to a lot of things. Waking up in a different bed, seeing my mom instead of my dad everyday. But I really missed Sunnydale," Cordelia admitted, her voice still quiet. "Surprised me a little how much I missed this place."

"Maybe it wasn't Sunnydale that you missed. Maybe it was just the people in Sunnydale that you wanted to see again." Angel smirked wryly for a moment, noticing Cordelia's approach. "How're Willow and Xander?"

"Willow's doing great. They both were a little bored. Xander's doing fine too. They're all just..."

"Moving on?" Angel dared to say, his voice challenging as he cocked an eyebrow at Cordelia.

Cordelia took the challenge and turned the tables, running a hand through her hair and averting her attention from Angel, just to further tease him. "I met a few new people too. A couple of guys."

Angel's confidence wavered when he couldn't quite pin down if she was teasing and lying or telling the truth. A bit of envy seeped into his body but he remained as cool as he could muster. "Really?"

"One in particular. Sweet guy. Dark, curly hair and beautiful green eyes," Cordelia narrowed her eyes, taking on a purposeful wistfulness in her tone, feigning a longing for the guy she was making up. "Tall, handsome and he had the biggest-"

"Alright, alright!" Angel gave in, lifting his hands and waving them, begging her to stop. "I get it."

Cordelia, smirking playfully, took another step forward. "So...are you making a midnight visit just to see little ol' me or is there another reason?"

Averting his eyes, Angel cleared his throat. "Well..."

"I knew it. There just had to be a reason."

"Hey!" Angel growled defensively. "Don't think that I wouldn't come here for no reason other than to see you. Because I was planning on doing it anyways."

Cordelia held back a laugh at how defensive he got. "Whoa, settle down tiger."

"Sorry..." Angel immediately apologized, lowering his head for a moment and looking to his lap where his hands played with one another. Finally, he pushed his body away from the windowsill slowly, walking closer and closer to Cordelia. When he stopped, he was so close that his breath coursed over her skin, sending chills up her spine. His dark eyes looked into hers for so long that he almost lost himself in the depths of her gaze, only remembering where he was when finally he spoke. "My other reason for coming tonight..."

When he started to move Cordelia almost opened her mouth to protest, assuming he was moving away from her, breaking the closeness they shared. Maybe she was in some kind of trance, but she didn't want Angel or herself to move away, she didn't want to be farther away from him then she already was. She spent three months away from the sincerity of his voice, the intensity of his eyes and the security of his strong, muscular body...

Angel, instead of moving away, simply dug into his jacket pocket, looking for something. Finally, he pulled a chain out. At the end of the chain, much to Cordelia's shock was the cross he had given her when they first met. "You had it in a jacket of yours that you left at my place. Found it a week ago and have been wanting to give it back."

Taking it from him, Cordelia gave a small smile, still drowning in surprise at the shiny, silver cross. "Thank you, Angel."

Angel looked down at her, a smile forming on his face at the sight of happiness in her beautiful eyes. "You're welcome."

Sunlight spilled across the empty front lawn of Sunnydale High, bringing life to the seemingly barren environment. All the students were inside for the first day back at school. Except for Xander Harris and Buffy Summers.

Xander, on his skateboard, cursed himself as he looked down at his watch. "Late for the first day. Not good, Harris. Not good at all."

He looked over his shoulder and made sure that Principal Snyder was no where to be seen, or stupid Harry the rent-a-cop security guard with a potbelly and pepper spray as protection instead of a gun. The last thing Xander wanted was to be caught trying to sneak into school after sleeping through his alarm clock.

Though by looking over his shoulder he wasn't looking where he was going and only when he knocked right into Buffy Summers did he realize there was someone else he didn't want to see. She was caught off guard and misconstrued his action as if he were assaulting her, grabbing his wrist awfully hard in response.

But when she saw it was Xander, she stopped her muscles from moving, from tossing the teenager through the air. He was annoying, sure, but she wasn't going to be throwing him through the air because of it. "Jeez, what's your childhood trauma? Can't walk to school anymore so you have to ride a stupid skateboard?"

Xander struggled to respond, trying to pull his hand away from her death-grip. "Not my fault you take up the whole sidewalk, Princess."

Buffy, ignoring the fact that her nails were digging into his skin and her hand was gripping his wrist so hard his hand was turning purple, rolled her eyes. "I'm already late thanks to the wonderful invention of the alarm clock, which some annoying geek like you probably thought up to annoy me even more!"

"Look, I'm late too. Why don't we make peace till lunch and then you can chop off my hand for all I care," Xander growled at her, loosing his cool as he continued to try and slip his hand from her unending grip. He eyed her then nodded his head expectantly towards his helpless, almost violet hand.

Buffy's eyes widened for a moment before she collected herself, letting go of him and shoving her hand in her back pocket, far away from Xander. Crap!

"Thanks..." Xander spat, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Look, if you wanna make some guy handless why don't you go do it to one of your boyfriends. I'm sure it'd make quite a statement if the quarterback didn't have a hand to catch all those touchdown-winning balls with."

Buffy scoffed, looking at him as if he were covered in dog crap. "Go choke on your own ego."

Without another word, she turned in a huff and hurriedly moved up the stairs towards the school, not once slowing down or looking back at Xander.

Xander however didn't start to go inside the school right away, the pain in his wrist catching his full attention. Looking down at his wrist he gulped. As if he'd been given an Indian burn, his entire wrist was reddened with pain in the shape of a small hand. Buffy Summers wasn't exactly some weak girl, but the throbbing pain in his wrist couldn't possibly have been inflicted upon him by her. "How-?"

Buffy cursed under her breath, looking again at her watch. All I needed to do was go to school, get through the day and go to the cheerleading tryouts after school. I couldn't even do that.

Running a hand through her hair, she paused and sighed, looking up the stairs then down the hallway to her right. She knew the school inside out yet at the moment she couldn't tell up from down, left from right.

Her hands were shaking and her eyes hurt, the images from her dream flashing before them. That was what scared her the most. She would wake up most of the time and not remember her dreams, but now, as the images flashed before her eyes, she connected the dots and it all started to flood back.

Grabbing at the handrail on the stairs, Buffy leaned forward, her head becoming too heavy to support.

Sitting down, she buried her face in her hands and tried to clear her mind. "Gah!" Doubt flooded her when her thoughts reminded her of the early tryouts for cheerleading. Maybe I shouldn't do it this year. Whatever's going on with me is too freaky. I can wait a few weeks and try out then, when all the little sophomores are doing it.

Even when she thought it to herself it sounded stupid, unreasonable and impossible to do. She'd be ridiculed the entire year for having to try out with the sophomores when she, Queen B of the Buffettes, was a superior Junior.

So, she decided, as she stood up while taking in a deep breath, she wasn't going to let it affect her as much as she had allowed it to all through the summer. Getting her bearings, she turned and walked down the hallway towards class, hoping to return to at least a little bit of normalcy.

Giles walked out of his office, muttering the words that he was reading from the book in his hand. Without even looking up he lifted his hand and motioned for Cordelia to stop sitting on the counter. "Although I am grateful to be considered the 'cool' adult in your eyes, I have to draw a line. Sit in a chair like any civilized human being."

Pulling out her lollipop, Cordelia grinned. "Good to see you too, Giles."

His boyishly blue eyes flashing up at her, Giles allowed a small smirk to pass over his face. "How was your summer?"

Cordelia shrugged. "Uneventful. And about the cool thing...not to bust your bubble but have you seen the other adults in this world?"

"Point taken," Giles closed his book with a small laugh. "I admit it is good to see you."

They both shared a moment of silence before Cordelia opened her mouth once again. "There actually might be someone at this school that would be willing to beat you down for that cool trophy."

"And to whom are you referring?" Giles asked, hardly concerned.

"Miss Calendar," Cordelia cocked her eyebrow suggestively at Giles. "But I'm sure you already knew that."

"You're unbelievable."

Cordelia faked a pout, "But in an adorable way, right?"

"In an unbelievably odd, confusing way actually." Giles removed his glasses and wiped them with handkerchief. "Now, since you've crossed the line of being a naïve teenager to a meddling child I'm going to take my turn. Tell me the truth about your summer."

"I did tell the truth," Cordelia lied; averting her eyes and trying to focus all willpower on making sure she sounded convincing. But one glance at Giles, who was staring her down with a knowing glint in his eyes, and she broke. "Alright, alright! Jeez, if looks could kill..."

Giles didn't say anything, instead choosing to continue looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to give her the answer he knew she had.

"I wrote down in my little notebook the things I could remember seeing," Cordelia walked over to her bag, opening it and shoving her hand inside, searching for the book. Pulling it out, she tossed it at Giles, who looked incredible dorky trying to catch it. "But like I told you before I left, there were some things that were a little blurry."

Giles nodded, not even bothering to open it. "I'll look through it when you're in your next class. Which is?"

"English." Cordelia said, her voice not without distaste. She opened her mouth to continue the conversation, to ask him a favor or to make some witty remark that she knew would get on Giles' nerves, but she stopped when the doors opened and in walked Xander. "Hey."

"Hey," Xander scratched the back of his head. "I made a fool of myself by freaking out over sleeping in and racing to get here. Then I remembered when I get to the office that I have free period."

"Ah," Cordelia held back a laugh. "So your first day is going well?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "That wasn't the end of it. You'd think Buffy would prefer to have some hunky man build her a bridge so she wouldn't have to walk where all the 'common folk' walk."

"What happened?"

"She got mad at me when I ran into her with my skateboard." Xander looked at Cordelia, waiting for her to agree with him that the blonde bitch overreacted. But he didn't get what he wanted.

"Look, I'd get pissed if you did that to me too. Maybe not as much as Buffy but that's only because she has too many gold coins and tiaras shoved up her ass."

Giles shook his head, "I don't get teenagers. Xander, running into her was rude and it probably injured her in some way. How did you expect her to react?"

"Look, I'm not stupid. I know better than anyone to not expect an ounce of civility from that girl, but the least she could do was not injure my writing hand. Now I can't even pretend to be writing notes in class."

He held out his arm to show both Cordelia and Giles. In replacement of the redness that was there right after Buffy ran off, a large hand-shaped bruise was forming in disgusting vividness.

Stay awake, Buffy thought over and over. Five more minutes. Stay awake for five more minutes.

She didn't even know what the teacher was talking about. Maybe it was interesting, she mused to herself, considering the possibility that he was one of those teachers who compared tedious literature with Cosmo.

Edward Thomas, the new English teacher, wasn't the cutest guy in the world but he wasn't in the league of uglies like Mister Robins the biology teacher. Buffy just didn't have the willpower to force herself to even try and listen to what he was discussing. If he had been cuter, she might have found strength to, but not so sadly, he was not.

And the constant whispering of Cordelia behind her? Either she stops or I make her. The tightening of her fingers into a fist was involuntary but not the first thing on her mind however. Her other hand gripped the desk till it splintered, cracking loudly and catching the attention of every last person in the room.

"Miss..." Edward pulled out his sheet with a drawing of the classroom and perused it till he found the seat Buffy was in. "Summers. Is there something wrong?"

"Um..." Buffy perked up, releasing her hand from the desk, shaking the splinters from her skin. "Yeah. Just...your uh, teaching was so..."

The man with long hair reaching below his ears and a hint of a goatee growing across his features lifted his free hand and laughed modestly. "Don't bother. Nurse?"

"Huh?"

Ed Thomas did well in keeping his patience in check for a student who interrupted his class whilst also damaging school property. "Do you need to see the nurse?"

Buffy shook her self out of her trance long enough to focus her eyes and look down at her hand, which was bleeding from several spots because of the damned slivers from the desk. She could feel Cordelia's breath on her neck, knowing the annoying brunette was peering over, trying to get a better look at what happened. Holding back a growl, Buffy tried to collect herself. "Sure...I guess I should. Don't want to spread that hepatitis now do I?"

Grabbing her bag, Buffy slipped out of her seat and walked out of the classroom, holding her head up high but avoiding any contact at the same time.

Moments after the door closed behind her the bell rung and she groaned. Leaving that room brought a small sense of relief deep down and she hardly had the time to even acknowledge it before people surrounded her again.

Then she froze. What's my problem? Are fumes leaking into my bedroom or what? I love being around people, even when I hate most of them. Why do I want to be alone? I'm not a geek, why should I not like socializing?

A thousand other questions flooded her mind and even as she stood still the world around her kept spinning, moving and shape shifting into different surroundings. One second she was on some secluded beach with nothing but a beach towel, sun block and the image of Brad Pitt plastered in the sky.

Next she was in a dark room with only firelight as a source of her seeing anything. Monsters surrounded her, ones with gray, rough skin and ugly clothing. She wasn't afraid, only because of the lasting feeling that in a moment or two she'd return to the beach.

Unfortunately a hand grabbing her shoulder shook her out of it and when Buffy turned to see who it was she didn't bother to repress a groan of displeasure. "What do you want?"

Cordelia looked at her as if she had said something even worse and Buffy rolled her eyes, giving in and speaking with a mock-polite voice. "I mean...do you need something?"

The girl before her wasn't like the Buffy Summers Cordelia had gotten used to. Not that she knew her all that well but the difference between the one she was confronting and the one she had been surprised to see driving through the walls of Sunnydale high was undeniable.

Buffy looked irritable, out of place and like all she wanted was to not be around brainless jocks and superficial cheerleaders. Which was surprising enough since she only dated jocks and only associated herself with those annoying cheerleaders.

"I talked to Xander," Cordelia began the conversation, getting right to the issue at hand. "From what I saw, you've got a grip on you like no other."

Scoffing, Buffy turned and started to walk away from Cordelia, speaking to her over her shoulder. "It's really sad that you have so much free time that you have to go harass people who hurt your itty bitty boyfriend."

Cordelia followed closely behind her, actually having to jog just to catch up to the unusually fast-walking Buffy. "He's not my boyfriend."

"That's right. Forgot that you have dibs on Angel."

Having had enough, Cordelia grabbed Buffy's arm, roughly pulling her around so that they were face to face.

Buffy responded just as roughly by pushing herself away from Cordelia, releasing her own arm from her grip. "Look, I have a nurse to go to. Call me shallow if you like but I don't want to walk around school leaving a trail of blood. If I did then you would be able to find me. Which I do not want."

An edge in her voice indicated that Buffy was past the line of controlling herself, her hand itching to impact with Cordelia's cheekbone if she touched her again. The anger she had inside was stemming from nowhere. Or maybe it wasn't. Buffy didn't have the time to ponder what underlying emotions were affecting her lack of patience. And she didn't have time for Cordelia Chase.

And Cordelia wasn't going to mess with her for the moment when she caught sight of the glint in Buffy's emerald eyes and angry thoughts that weren't hers flashed through her mind. When Buffy turned to go she didn't stop her either, thinking it better to talk to Buffy about whatever was going on later, perhaps when she calmed down.

Xander grumbled to himself, opening his Spanish book with an extravagant gesture, as if it took every last bit of strength to jump into his homework. "You'd think Ms. Sanchez wouldn't assign homework on the first day. There'll be a lot of Spanish verbs spoken so leave now if you don't want to hear me try and figure out what I'm saying."

Rolling her eyes, Willow tucked a stray hair behind her ears and looked up from her own Spanish textbook to where Xander was lying on the counter.

The library was empty with the exception of them and Giles, who was in his own little office in the corner of the library. Cordelia was bound to arrive soon and they were waiting for her to start the studying.

"Was it just me or did Cordelia seem a little distant in Spanish earlier?" Xander asked, avoiding Willow's stare. He didn't want to admit his other intentions of bringing Cordelia up. She'd been distracted in class and hadn't responded to his slight flirting. He wasn't going to fully advance on her until he knew that she had some sort of attraction to him. But he didn't so he wouldn't.

"She seemed fine." Willow bit the end of her pencil for a moment, thinking. "You can't blame her after what happened. She might be a little distant but that's normal, I guess."

Giles exited his office, suspiring a long breath. "Sarcasm has replaced her ability to delve into any emotional topic that involves herself."

"Cordelia was always sarcastic," Willow muttered quietly, glancing up at Giles and taking a guess at what might've occurred. "Did she hit a nerve or something?"

"No!" Giles defended himself too quickly, pushing Xander off the counter swiftly with his hand. "I was merely stating what I had noticed."

Rubbing the dirt off of his jacket, Xander stood up, trying to hold onto some sense of cool instead of looking like an idiot. "She doesn't really talk about it. At least she hasn't yet."

"Talk about what?" came Cordelia's voice right after Xander's as she entered through one of the doors. A soft reckoning in her deep brown eyes caught Xander off guard.

Stuttering to respond for several seconds, Xander shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. Giles rolled his eyes at the sight of him.

"Did you speak with Buffy?" the Englishman got right to the point, though a tinge of guilt fluttered in his stomach. He'd grown quite fond of Cordelia and after three months away the first thing he did was question her honesty and whether her dreams kept occurring. He felt as if he'd betrayed her by not showing he cared a little more. But Cordelia didn't seem to mind, there was no sense of hostility against him when she spoke.

Throwing her bag atop the counter and seating herself on one of the many uncomfortable stools, Cordelia could barely manage to shrug at the subject. "Something's up."

Images of Buffy, jaw clenched and hands just itching to form into fists, flashed before her eyes for a split-second before she shook herself out of it. Cordelia didn't want to waste her energy worrying over that girl, or worrying herself over the disturbing connection she had felt, if only for a few moments.

On the other side of the counter Giles eyed her until she continued speaking, elaborating.

"Look, I'm not going to sit here and act like I really care about Buffy. She hasn't given me a reason to really like her, so why should I care if she's starting to get abusive?"

"You're being selfish." Giles placed his hands on his hips and looked at her disbelievingly. "What if she's in danger?"

"Or possessed," Xander put in, casually sitting on the stool right next to Cordelia. When he received odd looks from both Giles and Cordelia, he took on an innocent, wide-eyed expression. "What? I wouldn't put it past her to get herself in some sort of situation like that. She brainwashes those girls who follow her around so it wouldn't be that surprising if she got a taste of her own medicine."

Giles ran a hand over his face, actually letting out a low rumble from deep within his chest. Xander was right, no matter how stupid his explanation was. And Xander being right about something was a surefire sign of a nearing apocalypse.

"I agree. I say we quarantine her," Cordelia jumped at the prospect of Buffy being locked in a cage, and by the look in Xander's eyes and his jumping up beside her, he felt the same way.

Willow didn't even bother to get involved in the mess, catching sight of Giles looking at the pair with shock.

"What is your problem with Buffy?"

"Nothing!" Cordelia said in a slightly reassuring tone, convincing Xander but not Giles. There was a slight waver in her voice and her eyes averted for a moment when she spoke, which Giles had come to know as an indication that she was holding something back. She saw it register in his eyes and growled to herself for allowing her lie to slip through. "Earlier when I tried to talk to her. She...she threatened me."

"Buffy threatened you?" Willow asked, finally speaking, looking up from her book and joining the conversation.

Xander laughed, shaking his head. "Heh. Girl's got more nerve to mess with you than I figured. Unless she forgot about you being a Slayer, which, again, I wouldn't put past her."

"And it pissed me off too," Cordelia said, her voice a low rumble. "But..."

"But what?"

Looking as if she didn't want to admit it to herself, Cordelia looked at Xander, then Willow, before locking stares with Giles again. "I had the strange feeling that she could go through with it. Some part of me could feel what she was feeling. I could hear her thoughts in my head for a moment. Maybe I was imagining it but...there's something different about her."

Taut muscles and ultimate concentration. Buffy Summers popped her knuckles and focused on the task at hand: to be unbeatably peppy and cheerful with an unending, toothy smile and for her arms to lead her to the coveted co-captain of the Cheerleading squad.

Brace, kneel and lift. Get a good grip, hold on and don't drop the cargo. Repeating the thoughts over and over in her head, Buffy glanced around the school gym, a chill rising up her spine that forced her to consider that something was going to go wrong. But she buried those negative thoughts and took on the role of peppy, happy Buffy who was going to win her spot on the cheerleading team. She was going to be more popular and powerful than ever and go back to that tolerable life she had before all the weird things started happening to her.

"Do you understand what you have to do?" Missy Adams chirped in her false-cheery, high-pitched voice, sending an annoying spurt of pain through Buffy's brain, distracting her for a second before she caught onto control of her entire body.

Straightening her posture, clearing her mind except for the directions of what to do, Buffy nodded, plastering that cheery smile on her young features. Sounds of doors opening off to the side caught her attention and she glanced once, twice, three times in the direction, first in curiosity and two times more out of disgusting disbelief. Cordelia Chase, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris were standing in the doorway, watching her cautiously.

"Great. Another intervention..." Buffy grumbled, backing up and walking behind Sarah Waters, the cheerleader she was supposed to lift and hold in the air with only her hands for five seconds. All she had to do was that, the last objective in the tryouts and she was in.

Screw normalcy. Screw asking for help. I don't need help. Living alone deep inside, a shell of a human being to the core while walking around with the mask of a popular, rich and happy teenager who ruled the high school she attended was enough for her the past year, and the ones in junior high. Why break the routine?

"One!" She called out, kneeling down in sync with her voice, her hands wrapping around the soles of Sarah's shoes. Don't drop her. Just don't screw it up. "Two!" She locked her legs, saving her strength to endure Sarah's weight for enough time and tightened her grip around the white tennis shoes. Here we go! Give it your all, Summers.

"Three!" she lifted her up with all her strength, which was a big mistake. Instead of shifting her hands to have her palms under the soles of Sarah's shoes, Buffy didn't have anything to hold. The sound of a high-pitched screaming created a sinking feeling in her stomach. Looking up as the world started to move in slow motion she saw Sarah flying into the air. So high that she nearly reached the high ceiling.

Out of instinct, the girl grabbed the nearest thing she could, the scoreboard. Everyone that had been watching in the stands was tripping over themselves to get closer, to get a better look. But Missy stayed put, a roll of her eyes and the look that said: Great. A distraction.

Poor Sarah was starting to slip and grabbed the 1997 State Champs Basketball Team pennant and let go of the scoreboard. A stupid move on her part. She wasn't a fat girl but her weight was hardly supportable by the flimsy banner and it ripped off the wall, causing her to swing directly into a wall.

As everyone rushed to help her, Buffy looked down at her hands in disgust. She was wrong yet again. No going back. Something was seriously wrong and she couldn't even return to her normal routine because of it.

Much to her dissatisfaction, the first thing Buffy saw when she looked up was Cordelia, Willow and Xander walking closer and closer.

Her secret was no longer hers.

TBC...