Title: The First Seconded
Author: Falcon-Rider falcon_rider@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13 for Angst and ect. And CD
Disclaimer: I own nothing 'cept the plot and Nich. Oh and a few others…
Authors note: Wow, over a month, dam myself dam. Actually all my writing time was taken up by soccer. Sniff and school work and various other things. My new science teacher is funny yet scarry. He burned al hole in the floor during one of his ex.
And now the light at the end of the… wait… no it's just a new part…
***
Part Thirty Two
They don't serve breakfast in hell
21 days
The room was dark with newly painted blue-black walls, the official name of the paint: Black Flame. Charcoal grey curtains hung over the open window and swayed slightly in the breeze.
A few boxes and bags littered the oak wood floor and price tags from recently bought clothing items and school supplies added to the mess. A simple but elegantly carved mahogany stained bed was covered with charcoal and midnight blue bed linens.
The blankets moved slightly as the beds occupant frowned in her sleep. She turned over as if finding a more comfortable position would chase the dreams away.
The breeze turned into a gust of wind that tossed itself into the spacious room through the charcoal curtains, which billowed out into the moonlit room. It caressed its way across the cluttered floor and the nearly empty book case and matching dresser. It fluttered through the room and its breeze moved a strand of wavy blonde hair from the teenagers' cheek and caressed the white skin as the frown deepened. In her restless sleep tears fell from her closed eyes as horror filled her sleeping features.
**
"Mommy?" Her small voice echoed into the large house, her small hand twisted the golden doorknob slightly letting the linen closets door crack open slightly. "Mommy, I waited."
The little girl stared out into the dimly lit hallway before gripping the bottom of the shelf her mother had placed her on before telling her to be silent and to wait for her to return. Her long blonde hair framed her golden face as her yellow eyes adjusted to the darkness.
The hallway brightened in front of her and she giggled as she stared at the wall across from her. Carefully she slipped from her perch and landed lightly on the carpeted floor.
"Mommy!" She called out into the quiet house a smile on her pink lips. "Daddy tried to paint the wall again!"
Her young mind registered the dark color over the cream colored walls as the paint her father had attempted to use in the bathroom to 'brighten' it up from the brisk white color it was just last week.
She giggled as she touched the dark liquid smeared on the wall. "Daddy made a mess!" She called out.
She smeared the liquid across her new rose colored jeans she bit her lip. Her mom wasn't going to be happy that she ruined the brand new pants.
Her lips turned into a pout as she glanced around the darkened hall, "Mommy?" She called out her high voice a squeak. A little bit of light drifted from the door to her parent's bedroom.
"Mommy!" She called out again as she walked towards the color splattered door.
She past by several dark smudges on the carpet and a thick gold band that had rolled out from the guest bedroom which door was only slightly open.
Pushing open the door to her parents' room she smiled softly at her mother. The telly was playing, it's flashing lights played out into the dark room. Her mother leaned against the foot of the bed faced toward the small box. The television played a scene over and over.
On the screen her mommy and daddy kissed in front of a tall man holding a book. Her mom was dressed in a long flowing white dress a veil over her eyes and her daddy in a dark tux.
"Mommy?" she asked as she walked over to her mother. She sat down next to her mother whose head rested against the dark comforter of the bed.
Her mother didn't answer so she pulled her legs up against her and stared at the television screen. She leaned her head against her mothers shoulder.
She didn't even notice the dark wood that pierced her mother's heart, or the blank stare that filled her mothers normally sharp and pointed green eyes.
Her young mind was oblivious to the death and despair that filled her world.
She remained there leaning up against her mothers body for several hours till her aunt and uncle found her there.
**
The night had since brightened as the moon set and the sun arose to start a new day. Nich rolled over and stared at the red numbers as her alarm clock continued to blare. She sighed and let her hand rub the sleep and tears from her eyes before her mouth widened into a yawn.
A sharp knock on the door brought her out of her memories.
"Nich? Are you up?" Tara's voice called from the other side of the door.
The teenager glanced around the room and sighed, her hand dropped to her side. "Yah Tara, I'm up!"
**
Nich yawned as she walked into the dining room and sat on one of the wooden stools.
"Oh pancakes, yum." She smiled as Tara placed the plate in front of her. "So where's William? He's the reason I have to get up so early. If he wasn't a teacher I could have slept in for about a half hour longer!" She announced grimly as she spread butter over the golden brown 'bread'.
"Still getting ready I think," Tara shrugged her lips twisted into a smile. The Wiccan poured more of the pancake mix into the pan as she spoke. "Are you ready for you're first day of school at Sunnydale High?"
"Is any high school student to be ever ready?" Nich asked her left eyebrow rose slightly as she poured maple syrup over her thoroughly buttered pancake.
"No," Tara laughed and shook her head causing her long newly darkened hair to twist in its ponytail behind her. She smiled one of her half-smiles. "I guess they aren't."
The two looked up as the male of the house hold spoke up shakily from the doorway to the dining room, "I don't think I'm ready for this."
"If I'm ready then-" Nich stopped dead as she saw him. "Oh my gawd."
Spike glared at her as he placed his coat on the back of a dining room chair. He had on a charcoal gray slacks and a blue button up shirt. His sandy blonde hair was gelled and slightly tousled so that it curled a bit.
"Wow," Nich smirked as she popped a forkful of pancake into her mouth. "I'm going to be so popular."
Spike looked up at her and frowned, his scarred eyebrow raised.
Nich smiled even broader, "All the girls, and probably a few guys, will want to be my friend just so they can hang at my house to have a chance at seeing my hot older brother in a towel."
At Spikes look Tara laughed, "You look great."
"Thanks," Spike told them as he walked past Nich into the kitchen. "Pancakes?"
"Yours is just about done," Tara nodded over her shoulder. "There's some hot water in the kettle and teabags in the second cupboard to the right."
Spike smiled at the dark brunette Wiccan as he went to retrieve the ingredients for the tea. "Thanks ever so Glinda."
"Don't think this is going to happen every morning," Tara smiled devilishly. "After today you two is either going to learn how to cook or survive on cereal. My first Class doesn't start till ten."
"Guess that means Will's going to starve," Nich replied as she grabbed a slice of Bacon off of a plate.
"I'll have you know I can cook," Spike answered stiffly as he placed a tea bag in his mug. "In fact I can cook quite well. I'd be worried about starving myself if I were you."
"You see I thought of that, that's why I'm taking 'Food's and you' as my occupational Education course. I figured I could learn to cook healthily and not have to worry about starving myself and becoming grossly thin and anorexic." Nich flipped her long hair over her shoulder so the blonde curls wouldn't get into the syrupy goodness that covered her breakfast. "So, I have no reason to worry unlike you mister-I-lived-on-blood-for-one-and-a-half-centuries-and-had-no-reason-to-cook-unless-it-involved-torture."
Spike glared at her as he ran a hand through his blonde locks and mussed the curls up even more than they already had been.
Tara chuckled before glancing over her shoulder at the ex-vampire, "She does have a point."
**
The clink of Trix cereal as it hit the bottom of her empty bowl seemed to help Buffy wake up. The female slayer hadn't gotten much sleep last night after she was ambushed by a small gang of vampires. Luckily for her all cuts and bruises were easily hid by the long sleeved white blouse she wore that tied around the middle.
"G'morning," Dawn yawned as she entered the kitchen and moved to grab herself an empty bowl. Placing it on the counter the brunette teen turned to one of the cabinets and took out a box of Raisin Bran.
"Morning," came the short reply. Buffy set the red cereal box with the white rabbit off to the side and picked up a carton of two percent milk from her right.
"I didn't hear you come in last night," Dawn announced as she pulled up a stool to sit on. "Tough night on patrol?"
Buffy glanced at her sister who had just begun to pour herself a bowl of cereal and smiled at the growing young woman. She used to feel the need to hide her sister from the darker side of life, to protect her from it. She should have known it would be impossible. The girl that sat before her, who now wore brand new boots with heels, was the continuation of her. Dawn was made from her blood and thus had inherited Buffy's calling as a part of her own.
"Not so much, just a couple of vamps and a Fetish-"
"F'Kesht?"
Buffy nodded, "F'Kiss demon. They actually seemed to have a plan. Only their plan only seemed to involve jumping me all at once with swords and no skill."
"Bet it made them feel pretty manly though," Dawn replied as she spooned sugar onto her cereal.
"What?" Buffy grabbed her sister's hand on the fourth scoop and removed the spoon from the teens clutches.
Dawn rolled her eyes, "The swords. Weapons, you know how weapons make guys feel-"
"Please tell me this is about patrol and not the uh, the-" Xander stated from the door to the kitchen.
"The sex talk," Dawn supplied with a smile.
"Wow," Buffy stated as she looked the construction worker over. "Look at you, the suit wearing you, quite stylish."
"Did someone die?" The teen asked as she lifted a cereal covered spoon to her mouth.
"Ha ha," Xander set the long card board tube on the table and unscrewed the lid.
"Oh, those are the plans?" Buffy asked as he slipped them out of the container.
"Yep," Xander nodded and walked into the dining room where he could splay them out across the window.
Dawn followed her sister and Xander into the dining room her cereal bowl in hand, "I'm thinking you didn't bring these just to make sure I knew my way around the high school."
"Actually, I was comparing the new high schools plans with the old plans and I found out something interesting…" Xander trailed off as he lined up the buildings. "Awe here we are."
"What?" Buffy peered at the confusing lines and words that made up the over lapping plans for the high schools. The sunlight filtered through the paper making it easier to see both plans at once.
"This is the old schools library or as other wise known, the hellmouth." Xander pointed out. "When you line the two plans up guess what lines up perfectly."
"The cafeteria? Oooh, evil mystery meat." Buffy smiled slightly then grew serious. "What?"
"The principal's office."
"So," Dawn put in after a moment of silence. "Can I have dibs on slaying the principal?"
"Dawn, we don't know for sure that he's evil." Buffy pointed out. "Plus I wouldn't want something like that on your record-"
"This coming from the girl who blew up the school?" Her sister pointed her voice interrupted Buffy's train of thoughts.
"They never officially proved that." Buffy shot back. "Sides that was for a good reason, the mayor was evil."
Dawn rolled her eyes and dug back into her Raisin Bran.
Buffy watched her sister eat for a moment before she remembered something, "Oh! I forgot to give you your back to school present Dawn."
"Phwezent?" Dawn mumbled through a full mouth as she watched Buffy grab a box from a cupboard.
Buffy smiled broadly as she handed the box to her sister and watched her expectantly. "Come on, open it."
Dawn ripped the paper off the box hurriedly and opened the lid, her blue eyes shined and her mouth formed a perfect 'o'.
"You like?" Buffy asked her smile even broader if possible.
*
The small silver car pulled into parking place number thirteen in the teacher's parking lot. Spike stopped the car and grabbed the red and gold parking permit off his dashboard and hung it from his rear view mirror.
"Wrong way," Nich pointed out from where she was adjusting the strap on her back pack.
"Huh?" Spike glanced over at her.
Nich rolled her eyes and motioned with her chin to the permit. "It has to face the other way or the guy who gives tickets won't be able to read it."
"Oh, right." Spike flipped the permit over and removed the keys from the ignition. "You have your cell?"
"Yep," Nich popped the 'p' and smiled at him. "It's on vibrate, so any nastys show up, don't hesitate to call… I'm so itching for detention on my first day."
"You get detention and you're grounded for a month." Spike glared at her.
"Hollow threats," she replied teasingly. Nich opened the door and climbed out, once out of the silver car she slung the back packs single strap over her shoulders and adjusted her black shirt.
"Don't push it Kat," Spike replied belatedly as he grabbed his notebook and stuck his own cell phone in his pant pocket along with his wallet and car keys.
Nich glanced around the parking lot and grumbled, "We're so early."
"That's the general idea pet, 'm a teacher and all now," Spike smiled slightly. "'got to get here early to prepare for class. Sides you're a teenage girl you should be off socializing and all… talking about boys and whatnot."
"Yah, I'll go do that," she rolled her eyes. "Gawd, I really hate stereotypes, being a teenager is not all about the opposite sex… really it isn't. There's also sports and homework and…"
"The opposite sex?" Spike supplied.
Nich glared at him, "Well then I guess I'll go socialize. See you sixth period."
"What?"
"Your sixth period world history class, which I'm in… see you then."
"You're what?" Spike frowned and flipped open to his class schedules where student names were listed. "Bloody hell."
"Gee, you didn't know?" the seer teased. "Well I hope no one else you know is in one of you're classes, unless it was sixth period, cause I'd really love to see their reaction."
Spike glared at the teens back as she walked off, he had a sinking feeling that today was going to be a very long one.
"Oh, Nich!" He called after her before she had gotten too far away.
"What?!"
"I have a teachers meeting after school so I can't give you a ride," He yelled.
She shrugged in response, "I have Dance but I think I'll be alright walking home before dark with my 'special' abilities."
He nodded, "I may not be home till late though… I was thinking about seeing the night sights."
"The night sights?" Nich frowned. ""Oh! The night sights! I get it, you have fun and be careful, don't run into anything you can't handle."
"Me not able to handle something?" Spike laughed.
Nich frowned at him and crossed her arms over her chest, "Yah, you not being able to handle something. Or how about someone? Hmmm? A certain blonde girl?"
"I can avoid her." He replied simply and turned away.
The teenager watched him walk off and dropped her arms to her side. 'Way to go Nich,' she thought to herself as she sighed. "Good luck! Like any slayer can avoid a fight… they'll probably jump each other by accident or something." She muttered to herself as she walked toward the main entrance.
Spike felt a flash of pain course through him at his 'sisters' words. He adjusted his notebook under his arm and absently tapped on its black covering. Sure he wasn't about to go out of his way to run into her. She probably never wanted to see his face again, but Tara had been sent to guide him, and she had been told they had to go to Sunnydale. He knew he'd have to face Buffy someday, but that didn't mean it had to be today.
Pushing his thoughts away he slipped into the school building at the gym entrance since it was closest. A blonde woman with blue eyes ran into him as she dug through her purse looking for something or other.
"Oh shit," Faith glanced up at him apologetically. "Sorry about that."
Spike and Faith both knelt down to pick of the various items that had fallen from the once brunettes purse and knocked heads.
"Ow," They both muttered and gave each other small grins.
"Sorry about that," Spike told her as he handed her his stack of the blue sheets. Faith took them and shrugged.
"No problem," The once brunette rouge slayer frowned at him. "Do I know you?"
Spike returned her frown with a shake of his head, "I don't believe so."
"Oh, it's probably just your accent," Faith smiled awkwardly and adjusted her papers. "Nice running into you…"
"William," Spike supplied to her.
"Nice to meet you William," She smiled at him and tossed her hair before backing up a step. "I better get going, got to get ready for class."
"Yah, I have to get ready too, I'll see you later Miss…"
"Wilkins," she turned to walk away almost at a jog.
"Miss Wilkins." Spike shrugged at the woman's back as she hurried off in a panic. 'Must be the first day jitters,' he thought as he adjusted his notebook and continued on his way.
*
Faith leaned against the door of her office and sighted. He was British, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. There are many British people in the world, so what if every single watcher she's ever met happened to be British? It doesn't mean that every British teacher that works on the hellmouth is a watcher. Why was she kidding herself? Faith banged the back of her head back against the metal door. The watchers had to have found her sooner or later, now was as good a time as any.
*
Willow adjusted her bag before she entered the fixed up magic box. The small silver bell that now hung from a chain announced her entrance. She glanced nervously around the room and smiled awkwardly at Anya and her vengeance demon friend Halfrek.
"I'm assuming you aren't here to wreck havoc," Anya started without even looking as she removed various incense's from packages. "So I won't demand you leave, but I'm not going to let you take anything for free anymore without a reason. The only reason I can think of to let you take anything is when an apocalypse rolls in, as long as you're not the cause. However, if you were I rather don't think I'd be able stop your black haired evil witch alter ego."
"Not here to take or buy," Willow told the demon. "But I am here to offer my assistance, my free assistance. I'm feeling kind of guilty."
"Guilty?" Halfrek blinked at her as she dusted off her skirt and stood. "Why should you feel guilty?"
"I don't know, maybe because I oh flayed a guy and then tried to destroy the world?"
Anya gave her a pointed look.
"And I destroyed the Magic box," Willow bit her lip and glanced around the large room awkwardly.
"So?" Halfrek shrugged. "What I hear is you took your vengeance out on you're Girlfriends killer, sounds perfectly normal."
"For a vengeance demon maybe," Willow set her bag on the ground and walked over to the two demons. "But not so normal for me, being a human and all."
"Pfft," Halfrek waved away the notion. "Everyone takes some sort of vengeance, it's just humans aren't officially vengeance takers."
Anya glanced back forth between the two women in her room and smiled awkwardly, "Uh, Hallie I think I can handle things here for now, don't you have something you could be doing?"
Halfrek sighed, "I suppose, I've been meaning to check on a little boy in Walla Walla for a while… his parents were neglecting him but he was too young to talk-"
"Well then, here's your chance to go check on the little squirt," Anya grabbed a book from her fellow demons hands. "Have fun; perhaps we could meet for coffee tomorrow?"
"Of course, ten sound good?"
"Sounds great," Anya smiled. "And then I can even give you all the news about my date."
Halfrek smiled and with a wave of her arms she disappeared.
Anya turned to Willow and let the smile fall from her face, "You know I don't know why I got rid of her for you; I should have just let her stay and make you feel increasingly guilty for ruining my shop."
Willow nodded slightly, "Yah, you should have." She replied her voice a whisper.
"Oh well, what's done is done," Anya rubbed her hands together. "Alright then let's put you to work missy. You can start with the candle display and then move onto the roots… and then after that you can help me pick out the perfect dress for my date with Giles. It's going to have to be something fancy but still retain a sense of casualness."
***
To be continued in: First Day Jitters
Author Note: Sorry for the long absence between parts, another should be out in a few days its just I've been so busy! I hadn't even realized it'd been over a month. Remember the countdown has gone from 147 to 21 days till the meeting which I can promise you will go semi fast since I'm being pushed by my muse to finish this before I reach a year. And yes I know how it's going to end but don't worry spuffyness will come soon. And no more months between updates I promise, I'm looking to next week or the week after! Oh and yes Walla Walla is a real town. Oh I also made a new music video though it's not Spuffy… it's about Dawn. Yes Dawn. I've seen almost all the Dawn mvids on the net and I noticed a big trend. Every Dawn music video out there had a majority of just season 5 clips so mine has a majority of season 7 clips. Check it out at my website its set to 'One girl revolution' by Amiee Alan. I also thought Dawn deserved the credit due to her for kicking so much demon ass this season and still having everyone treat her like she's a wuss.
Review Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^