Part 3

"God, why can't they make Geometry so anyone can actually understand it!" Faith exclaimed and sunk back in her chair with a groan. She threw her pencil at the math-book with an evil glare and in response it only bounced off, landing on the floor.

The brunette groaned again and rolled her eyes, leaning over to try and reach her pencil over the desk. But as she turned her head she met a pair of brown eyes, staring at them confused for a few seconds. Looking down she saw the owner of the eyes holding out her pencil to her, and she took it with a smile.

"Thanks, Ren," she grinned and looked at the girl, storing the pencil behind her ear so not to lose it again.

"No prob. And if you uh…need help with this stuff, I'd be more than willing to help out a friend," the brunette girl smiled back, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and watched Faith.

Leaning into her chair, Faith raised an eyebrow and chuckled softly, "Yeah? Well I might just take you up on that offer."

Ren smiled and turned back to her own book before the teacher caught them talking. But she was still thinking about what she'd just done; sure, she was Ren, she helped people out. Though she couldn't deny that there was definitely something different about Faith, something none of her friends had. It was almost as if the girl was radiating energy and adventure, definitely different from anyone Ren had ever hung out with. Sighing, Ren hoped she hadn't made a mistake offering her help, but the girl did seem nice enough.

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"…okay, so you know that's a right angle and you know that one's 68 degrees…now you can figure out how big the third one is."

"Uh…what?"

"Adding…a triangle's angles always add up to 180 degrees…See?" the girl explained, drawing out the calculations on a piece of paper for the other girl to see.

"I think I…get it!" Faith exclaimed and let herself fall backwards onto the bed where she'd been sitting with a groan. "I am so done!"

Ren turned her head to look at the other girl, then glancing at the book in her lap, "But we only did three chapters."

Faith laughed and looked up at the brunette, shaking her head with a sigh, "Oh Ren…," she started, sitting up and wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders to look at her, "you need to learn to find the fun a little."

"Ooh?" the brunette smiled nervously, she wasn't sure she really wanted to know what fun meant to the other girl.

Chuckling, Faith gently took the book from the brunette's grip and shut it, then looked into her eyes seriously, "Come on, we just need to get away from this studying. Not that I don't like it, I mean I don't like studying, although ever since you're helping me I even got a B in math…but…never mind. All I'm saying is…why don't we go to a movie, just you and me. Kind of as a thank you for helping me with school…and I'll even let you pick."

Faith wriggled her eyebrows at the last part and Ren couldn't help but laugh. What Faith was saying did sound like fun, a movie wasn't too dangerous or adventurous after all. And over the past two weeks that they'd been studying together she'd actually felt a little bit more careless than she had before. Faith was definitely a mood-lifter and no matter what her friends had maybe said about the girl, Faith was nice and sweet, as she'd just proven.

"Alright, I guess," she finally answered, looking away at Faith's triumphant smile, but couldn't help not to smile back as the brunette bounced on the bed excitedly.

And this time she didn't even wonder whether she'd just made a mistake, because Ren knew she hadn't. Faith was fun, and if people couldn't deal with that, then screw them. She sighed and let herself fall backwards on her bed like the other girl had done just a few minutes ago, feeling another body hit the mattress next to her.

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She practically thundered down the stairs, barely missing the sofa as she went to get her shoes. Faith turned around in a complete circle to see where the others were and saw some movement in the kitchen. Slipping on her shoes while trying to make her way into the kitchen she almost fell, but managed to make it into the room in one piece.

"Mom?" she asked, walking up to the counter to see the woman standing behind an opened fridge door. Joyce Summers had asked her, no she had insisted, Faith call her mom ever since they moved and Faith had happily obliged.

"Yes, Faith?"

"I'm going to the movies later, with a friend. Is it okay if I stay out a little later than ten?"

Joyce closed the fridge and set a small container on the counter, looking at Faith with that look on her face. The look that meant she was thinking of anything to stop the girl from getting in trouble and that meant playing 20 questions.

"Well, who's this friend?" Joyce asked, and looked at the brunette, then at Buffy who was sitting on one of the barstools chewing on an apple. She knew that the two girls' relationship was strained right now, and they might never even get back together, but she hoped they could at least be friends. Act a little more civilized than not-speaking. Buffy swiveled the chair around so she was halfway facing Faith and halfway looking at her mom, her elbows resting on the counter behind her.

"She's the one that's been helping me with math," Faith responded and picked up an apple out of the bowl on the counter, polishing it with the sleeve of her jacket.

"I don't know Faith…you know I don't like you girls just going off with friends I haven't met," Joyce responded, unsure of whether it was a wise idea to let the girl go.

"But I've been going over to her house for the past two weeks. And you let me and didn't know her," the brunette exclaimed, knowing that she was getting desperate to make bad arguments.

"Well that was for school. And besides, I haven't even met this girl's parents, I'd like to know what they're like."

Faith grinned and bit into her apple, at least she had a trump card for this one, "I think you know her mom. She's a Senator of California."

The older woman turned to look at Faith a little surprised, and both of them missed Buffy nearly choking on her apple. The blonde girl sucked in her breath, trying to swallow the piece of fruit lodged in her throat and looked at the younger girl. She wasn't sure if Faith knew who she'd cheated with, but if she did, then this might just be to get back at Buffy. Narrowing her eyes she got up and walked into the living room to watch TV. She couldn't let Faith think she was getting to her.

"I still don't know Faith," Joyce shook her head, but upon seeing the pleading look in the girl's eyes she sighed. It would probably do Faith some good to get out of the house, and the girl she was going with seemed to come from a respective house, not to mention she was an intelligent and helpful girl; very different from the groups Faith used to hang with.

"Alright…but I want you home by 11. No later, you understand me?" the woman stated, using her motherly face to underline the last point but Faith was already grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Thanks mom, I promise I'll be back on time!" the brunette called out as she was walking out the kitchen and out of the house.

Joyce stood in the kitchen and could only smile.

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"I must admit," the brunette grinned as they walked out of the crowded theater, "I was a little scared at first about seeing a romance movie…but it didn't totally suck."

Ren turned to look at her and rolled her eyes, then punched her lightly in the arm, "You know you liked it. Nothing wrong with romance, Faith."

"But there's also nothing wrong with some action and good ass-kicking!" the taller girl replied and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Thinking of something else she turned to look at Ren sheepishly, before adding, "'Sides, I would know. I'm older!"

Raising an eyebrow the other girl laughed at her and gave her a slight shove by bumping into Faith. The taller brunette had been joking about being older ever since they'd talked about their birthdays and found out that Faith was a week older than Ren. Which was really not being older in Ren's eyes, but Faith wasn't going to let her live it down.

"So, what does the wise, older person suggest we do now?" the younger girl replied and watched as Faith took a quick glance at her watch, then threw her a charming smile.

"How 'bout we grab something to eat? I'm starving, and we got over an hour until curfew."

Smiling back at the taller girl Ren nodded and followed Faith towards the plaza near the theater with countless restaurants located in it. Out of habit Faith wrapped an arm around the other girl's shoulders, but this time Ren enjoyed the gesture. Smiling at the other girl, they walked into the nearest restaurant.

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She brushed some blonde hair out of her eyes and rested her chin on her hand. Her eyes were wandering, but barely. For the past half hour probably she'd been staring off at the table in the far back. She'd been watching Faith, the way the brunette laughed, the way she brushed the occasional strand of hair out of her eyes, the way she grinned after making some crude joke that she received only groans for. Buffy sighed and wondered how she could've been so blind; how she could've thrown that away for…nothing. She really had nothing, except for some air-headed friends that couldn't think past boys and who broke a nail today.

"Buffy! Earth to Buffy," came her friend's voice from her side and the blonde snapped out of her daze, looking at Kyrie.

"Huh?" she mumbled, knowing that probably hadn't been the brightest thing to say.

"Gosh, Buffy, what's with you and the Geek-show? You've been staring over there for like half an hour…what's up? Some cute guy you're hiding from us?" the girl said, then started giggling along with the four other girls at their table.

Buffy turned back to face them and smiled as well, "Nah, I was just thinking about stuff. Sorry guys, what's up?"

As soon as the question left her mouth Jaycee had her eyes wide open and was leaning closer to her, as if they were conspiring over something, "Well if you hadn't been preoccupied for the last half hour you would've noticed Donnie Stevens totally checking you out! Oh my god, he's such a major hottie!"

Buffy cocked her head to look at the group of jocks sitting at the table next to them. They were loudly discussing the football game against the rival school this Friday and the blonde watched Donnie for a few seconds. Sure, he was cute, after all she'd thought so almost three weeks ago when she'd slept with him. Suddenly he turned his head and caught her eyes, smiling at her before turning back to his buddies.

The blonde blushed, looking away and she heard someone snicker from her side. She looked at Kyrie who was shaking her head, giggling along with the other girls about 'Buffy crushing on Donnie'.

"You totally want him Buff!" Jaycee exclaimed and Buffy knew that denying wouldn't make them believe either. She didn't know if she had a crush on Donnie, but she really didn't think so. Not that the three girls would believe it though.

But before she could say anything incriminating, she was saved by a huge crash and loud clatter coming from the side. Everyone turned their heads and looked at the brown-haired boy who slowly stood up from the floor, his Hawaiian shirt stained with tomato sauce and he grinned, raising his hands as a few people started clapping.

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here through Friday!"

Buffy rolled her eyes as she recognized Donnie's younger brother, watching as the kid picked up his tray from the floor and walked out of cafeteria as if he hadn't just made a total fool out of himself. Shaking her head the blonde turned her attention back to her group, but from the corner of her eyes she saw something that made her stomach turn in jealousy. Faith was walking towards the doors of the cafeteria, her backpack slung across her shoulder and next to her was the brunette girl she'd been hanging out with for a while now. Donnie's sister, Buffy remembered, Ren or some stupid name like that. But that wasn't even what pissed her off, she'd almost gotten used to seeing Faith with the girl. However, when the girl struggled with her heap of books she was holding Faith held out her hands, offering to take the books, at least that's what it looked like to Buffy since she couldn't really hear them. The two brunettes seemed to argue for a few seconds, until Faith grabbed the books out of Ren's arms and walked away with a confident smirk. Buffy watched as the shorter girl rolled her eyes before following Faith, resting a hand on the other girl's shoulder as they both walked out of the cafeteria.

Looking away, Buffy felt close to tears at the thought that she might've lost Faith…to a brainiac nonetheless. Not that it wasn't her own damn fault. She sighed and took a couple of deep breaths, looking at her friends again with a fake smile.

"So Buff, you going to the game on Friday?"

She slowly turned to look at Kyrie, staring blankly at the girl for a few seconds before nodding, "Yeah, I think I just might."

"And you know Donnie's gonna be there," Jaycee added with a wink and grinned as Buffy only shook her head.

Though she really didn't think it'd be a bad idea to get out, hang with some friends for a while and watch a couple of studly guys beat the crap out of each other.

Tell me what you think…should I continue?