Spike yawned and ruffled his dog's hair. Dalton gave a goofy grin and licked his hand as Spike climbed out of bed with another yawn.

"Oi! Spike you gotta go to school!" Ripper shouted up from downstairs.

Spike appeared at the bottom of the stairs in his pyjamas and looked at the clock, frowning to himself and trying to work out the time. The clock didn't help as it was one of the ones with roman numerals instead of numbers.

"It's quarter to eight," Ripper supplied from his position in the hallway.

Spike shrugged and gave up looking at the clock. "Why are you up so early?"

Ripper grinned slyly. "None of your business," meaning he wasn't going to school today, Spike knew. Compared to Ripper, Spike was a model student, which was why his parents spoilt him so much. Spike was the favourite son and he and Ripper both knew it.

"Dad's taking you to school today." Ripper motioned up the stairs with a nod of his head. "If he asks, I've already gone ok?" He slipped out the front door with a bag that Spike was pretty sure didn't contain school books.

Spike made himself some breakfast and planned out in his head the football team for break time. Their school was so useless that there was only one proper football pitch and the classes had to pre-book it for use during lunch time. Because of his exceptional skill, Spike had been nominated as the class captain and therefore he was the one that booked the pitch. It was all very professional really. You had to go to the headteacher and get her to put the class down for that day. Today was Tuesday which was yr4's normal footie day. Sometimes they played Fridays too but there was always a squabble over Fridays.

The class was split in two, (not including the girls, naturally) and made up two fair teams. Spike was normally captain of one team and Liam the other. If they played on the same team they always fought over the striker position.

"Hey kid, you ready to go?" Spike's dad came energetically into the kitchen and grinned at him. Spike grinned back, sweeping his blonde curls out of his face. "We should really get that sorted out, you need a hair cut."

Spike frowned. "I don't want a hair cut. Liam's hair is all floppy and cool."

"Liam's hair is straight and so it doesn't get all knotty when it's long," his dad replied, putting Spike's empty bowl of cereal in the sink. "Ok?"

"Yeah." Spike picked up his bag and followed his dad out into the car. Most people in his class lived within walking distance of the school (i.e., in the town) but Spike's family lived in the village just outside the main town, which meant he had to go in the car to school.

Hensford wasn't a large town, but it had a primary school – Spike's school – ranging from reception to year six, as well as both an infant school and a separate junior school. This meant that all the schools were pretty small and had only one class per year. There were also two high schools, Hensford Grammar and Hensford High. Spike thought they could at least have come up with some more original names than that.

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Buffy stood in front of her new class with a worried smile on her face. She didn't know anyone, and there were just so many faces looking at her. There were two girls at the back smirking and whispering, and Buffy deliberately didn't look in their direction again.

Mrs Hutton sat her next to a girl called Willow with red hair, who smiled at her. Buffy smiled back nervously. Willow seemed nice, but she didn't seem very sporty, which was the only thing Buffy was good at.

She got on with the work without saying anything. When it finally got to break time, the class broke up into their separate groups, with the boys all going off to play football. Buffy watched as the teams were sorted out and the started the match. She was itching to join in, but none of the boys even gave her a second glance. The boy with curly hair was good, so was his friend on the other team. There was one boy playing in defence on Curly's team who was good as well, and a much smaller boy who seemed to be pretty good although he wasn't playing in any particular position. But all the rest were rubbish. Buffy watched them for the full fifteen minutes that made up their break, then approached Curly-hair once the bell had gone.

"Hi. I'm Buffy, what's your name."

"Spike."

"Right. Um... I'm new." Buffy felt incredibly stupid. "So, do you like, play at lunch time too?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Can I play?"

Spike laughed then realised she was serious. "What you mean, join in?"

"Yeah." Buffy's face was flaming red.

"But you're a girl!"

"So?" she said hotly, "I can play football better than that lot!"

Spike looked at her sceptically. "All right. You can play at lunch and we'll see how good you are." He walked off to join Liam.

"Hey Lee, guess what?" He grinned. "That new girl wants to play footie with us."

Liam snorted. "She's going on your team then mate, we don't want her!"

"Uh, I sort out teams and I say she's on your side."

"She might be good," Doyle pointed out, and Spike looked at him.

"You're not serious?"

Doyle grinned. "You never know, she could be!"

Liam smirked, watching Buffy as she went through the doors into the classroom. "No way, she's too little."

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"Where did you learn to play like that?"

"But you're a girl!"

"She's better than me man!"

"That's impossible!"

"Girls can't play football!"

The only subject of discussion for the whole afternoon was Buffy's football skills. Spike and Liam sulked their way through the afternoon class and Buffy approached Spike as he waited for his mum or dad outside the school entrance.

"Hi."

Spike scowled. "What do you want?"

"To say hi?" Buffy looked a little hurt. Spike didn't understand this girl. Before she came it had all been simple. Boys. Girls. Don't mix. Let the girls be friends with the girls and the boys with the boys. Simple. Now Buffy was here and she was playing football? What was wrong with the world?

"Hi then," Spike said without feeling.

"What are you waiting here for then?" Buffy asked trying to be friendly.

"Waiting for my parents. One of them is supposed to pick me up."

"Where do you live?"

"Little Trippington."

"Me too!"

Spike glanced at her. All his friends lived in Hensford. He'd always wanted someone from his class to live in Little Trippington, although in his fantasies it had been Liam or one of the other boys that he could play footie with in the street. But then, he could play footie with Buffy too, judging by what he'd seen at lunch time. "What road?" he asked.

"The high street, number five."

Just round the corner from me then, Spike thought. His street, Waffles Avenue, joined onto the high street. Not that it was much of a high street. A post office, an off-licence and a souvenir shop for the non-existent tourists. The buses into Hensford came once an hour from nine till seven and then they stopped. Ripper often said it was like living in the Sahara, it was so remote. It would be nice to have someone living nearby, even if it was a girl. At least she was a girl who could play football.

Sorry this chapter's been mostly Spike centred... Next chapter I'll centre it around someone else. And sorry about the names too... 'Waffles Avenue'? Dunno where I got that from! Keep reviewing... don't stop now! Tell you what - if you review I'll try and make the next chapter longer!