Chapter Two

Sunnydale Prep School

End of August 1995

Cordelia Chase smiled eagerly as she looked at herself once again. Her green plaid skirt was at the appropriate length of two inches above her knee. Her white button down shirt was tucked into that skirt. Her knee-high socks were pulled up all the way. Her black shoes had heels that clicked as she walked into the small private school.

She was glad that her father was able to get her into this school. She was tired of the public school system. That was the system with losers such as Xander Harris. She came to this school to get rid of those losers. This school was only for the extremely rich people's children.

She walked in the door cautiously and was instantly overwhelmed. For such a small school, there were a lot of hallways to go down. She hoped she still looked young enough to pull off the lost little girl look, but old enough so that people would not just dismiss her as a freshman and move on with their lives.

"Hey," some older guy said as he walked up to Cordelia. "You look a little lost," he said as he motioned for her to move closer.

"What gave it away?" Cordelia asked as she followed him. "I'm Cordelia Chase, by the way."

"Richard Rico," the older boy responded. "Pleasure to meet you." He took Cordelia's schedule from her hands. "This is the first dead giveaway," he told her. He glanced it over. "Oh, you have Kornfeld first period. My advice would be to skip class and come with me."

Cordelia's eyes were wide with amazement. "They let you do that?" she asked. She then instantly frowned, realizing how lame that sounded. "I mean, I did it all the time at my old school. That's kind of why I'm repeating freshman year," she lied. She did not want to seem like that stupid young girl. This was a hot guy who might be interested in her. "Where are we going?" she asked curiously.

"Gym closet," Richard announced. "Don't worry. It's completely safe. All the guys go there to make out and stuff."

­Make out and stuff, Cordelia though to herself. That sounded harmless. She could always use a little kissing. She followed Richard to the closet. As soon as she was inside, Richard closed and locked the door. He then began unzipping his pants, allowing them to fall to the floor. He picked Cordelia up in his arms. He then frowned, noticing her worried expression. "What's with you? Don't tell me this is your first time."

"Well, if you want to be technical…"Cordelia began meekly.

Richard shrugged. "Well, you did come to this place to learn. What better place to start?" he asked as he kissed the base of her neck.

Hyperion Hotel

Fall 2001

"Um, Cordelia," Wesley interrupted as he gestured his head down at little Katie. "There is a little child here." Luckily, she was still drawing and was unaware of what was going on around her.

"I know," Cordelia pointed out. "I wasn't going to go into graphic detail. We had, um, fun," she said carefully. "The next thing I knew, I was asleep…"

Sunnydale Prep School

End of August 1995

Cordelia lay sleeping peacefully on the cold linoleum floor of the gym closet. She had a worn football under her head as a pillow. During her slumber, Richard had left the closet. Worse, he left it unlocked. Cordelia rolled over slightly in her sleep, accidentally kicking the door open with her left foot.

The principal of the school instantly turned around to face the door that opened itself. He knew of some of the weirdness associated with this town, but as far as he was concerned, the weirdness occurred over at the public high school. Intrigued, he walked over towards the door. He nearly fainted once he saw the young girl sleeping on the floor. "Miss," he said as he bent down. "Miss," he added as he began shaking Cordelia's shoulder gently.

Cordelia let out a yawn and extended her arms in a stretch to wake up. In doing so, she accidentally hit her new principal on the nose. That definitely woke her up. "Oh my god. I am so sorry," she began.

"What exactly were you doing in the closet?" the principal asked as he looked disapprovingly at Cordelia. "And who are you? Answer the latter question first."

"M-my name's Cordelia Chase," Cordelia began softly. "I'm a freshman, and I'm not really sure why I was in there. The last thing I remember was this older guy taking me in."

The principal rolled his eyes. "Come with me," he said as he rose from the ground.

Hyperion Hotel

Fall 2001

"That was it," Cordelia concluded. "The principal called the hospital, and they treated it as a rape. I was off in my counting, so I thought there was no possible way I could be pregnant." She looked over at Katie. "Obviously, I was wrong."

"How'd your parents take it?" Angel asked.

Cordelia sighed. "Not as well as I'd hoped, but then again, they were never really involved with my childhood anyway. I told my dad, and he just got this look. He handed me a credit card and told me to charge anything baby-related to that card. That was it. The only other thing they did was drive me to the hospital when it was time to give birth in June. Of course, I had to get out of Sunnydale Prep."

"You were expelled?" Wesley asked in confusion.

Cordelia shook her head. "Not exactly. They frowned upon my pregnancy and hinted that they would like me to consider other schools. That's how I ended up at Sunnydale High." She glanced over at Katie once again. "If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be with you guys today."

"That still doesn't explain the redhead," Gunn started.

Cordelia nodded. "Right. Well, obviously, I could not raise her and go to school at the same time. I wanted to, and tried to for the first month of sophomore year. It was just too hard. My parents were unwilling to watch her during the day, and I felt she needed more care than a daycare center could provide for her." She sighed heavily. "I had to give her up." She looked over at Katie again. "If you don't mind, I'd rather have this conversation with her first."

"Of course," Angel said. "Take the rest of the day off - the rest of the week if you'd like."

Cordelia smiled gratefully at her boss. "Let's start with the day and see where it takes us," she said. She walked over to Katie. "You want some ice cream?" she asked.

"Yea!" the little girl said excitedly.