After Olivia had been relieved of her duties as Buck's guardian, the Elders decided to leave the boy unprotected for a few years - they simply instructed Charles' Whitelighter, Andrew to keep an eye on the boy. That way there was no risk of another guardian growing too close to Buck. The Elders did consider having a male Whitelighter protecting Buck, but they were worried that even a male might get too close to the boy. The Elders were very open-minded and well aware that a witch could develop romantic feelings for either sex. Andrew was the safest option as he wouldn't even let the boy be aware of his presence, but would take good care of the boy from a distance and also be able to get the witch father's help if it was needed.
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Several years to the day after Olivia had returned from being assigned to the bound witch, she was told that a recently trained Whitelighter named Louise would be assigned to watch the boy. The Elders were aware that Buck wasn't very well behaved anymore and they were concerned that he wouldn't fulfill his part of the prophesy. Olivia was instructed to brief Louise on Buck, so that the Whitelighter could become best friends with him - even if it meant risking her becoming too close to him. She needed to be close enough to watch his movements and influence him enough to stop him becoming so bad that he couldn't meet his destiny.
In the heavens, Olivia began to brief the young Whitelighter on things that Buck liked. "He loves watching Westerns along with his father," informed Olivia, fondly remembering the few times when she'd been invited to watch the old movies with the family - even Bianca had become interested in Westerns after her son had begun to love watching them so much.
"Westerns, right," said Louise, making notes on the pad she held. The young Whitelighter wanted, just like Olivia had done, to get along well with the boy. Louise had died at the young age of twenty when she'd been working voluntarily in an impoverished country. As she'd done so much good work helping others in her lifetime, Louise had earned the right to become a Whitelighter.
As far as the Elders were aware, Buck hadn't been attacked since Olivia had left him. Then again, Andrew may have just neglected to tell them of any attacks. The Elders were responsible for the safety of every witch all over the world, so couldn't keep up with everything that happened to the witch population unless they were told of every event that happened. Attacks on their charges were supposed to be reported by the assigned Whitelighters, but either Whitelighters didn't always remember to report attacks, or they didn't bother to tell the Elders, thinking it wasn't significant. The Elders at least knew that Buck was still alive and well, so he hadn't been permanently hurt if he had ever been attacked.
"I think he'd be really impressed by a girl who loves horses - his love of the Old West has enamored him with that animal."
"Then it's a good thing I took riding lessons when I was a human," said Louise with a grin. She'd fit in perfectly and make sure no-one harmed the prophesied witch - if they did, they'd have to face her wrath.
"Olivia?" asked an older Whitelighter, as she approached the two younger ones. This Whitelighter had long dark-brown hair that hung loose down her back.
"Yes, Mother?" answered the twenty-five years old, Olivia. Although Olivia had been a Whitelighter for many years, she kept the appearance of twenty-five years old as she thought she looked her best at that age. Whitelighters were able to retain the look of any age they chose and could change at any time. With that power, they could look the same age as charges so they didn't intimidate their assignments by being much older than them.
"The Elders sent me here to tell you something. Can we talk in private?"
Olivia nodded in response to her mother's request and the two walked quite a long distance from Louise. Then they stood together to talk.
"What is it, Mother?"
Receiving a look of curiosity from her daughter, Terri began to tell Olivia what she'd just been told by the Elders. "There's been a change of plan. The Elders have decided to let you go back to Buck and make sure he grows up to fulfill the prophecy. As you were the first girl to whom he ever grew really close, they believe you can help him more than a stranger ever could. Buck was badly hurt when you left without personally saying good-bye, so you have to apologize for that in the hope it will help lessen the pain inside of him. "
"Oh." Olivia remained poker-faced, but was hurt inside that her young male charge had been badly affected by her leaving. She'd long ago broken her Whitelighter constraints that stopped her from feeling emotions, so could easily cry over Buck's pain if she wanted to, but she didn't like her mother to see her sad.
"You've only been re-assigned to Buck for a short time, to say good-bye to him properly and see that he doesn't let your leaving interfere with his feelings anymore. At the moment, his condition is threatening to stop him fulfilling his special destiny. You must leave immediately; and you'll need to look fourteen to keep up the pretense that you're the same age as him."
"I'll see you soon, Mother." Olivia changed into a fourteen-year-old modern version of herself.
Terri put a comforting hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I'm very proud of you, Olivia. You're a superb Whitelighter and I believe you will do a fine job of convincing Buck to start reverting back to the way he was becoming when you knew him."
"Thanks, Mother. See you soon." After Terri removed her hand from Olivia's shoulder, the teenage-looking Whitelighter orbed to not far from where she could sense Buck. As she had been assigned to him, the Elders had now made Olivia able to sense his presence in the human world, like all Whitelighters could with any charge assigned to them.
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"Hi, Buck," greeted Angelica, a girl with short, very dark hair, as she greeted her forth-coming date at the school gates that morning before school started.
"Hi, darlin', you look as pretty as anythin' today," greeted the teenage Buck, using one of the pick up lines that he'd picked up from his flirtatious father.
"Thank you, you're so sweet. You're looking very handsome yourself."
"Have to look my best for you, darlin'."
"I can't wait for tonight's date," said Angelica with a smile.
"Me either. Me and Dad will be there to pick you up at seven. Good thing he's off work today - I can never tell what time he'll be home 'cause he works pretty late hours with the law-firm at times." Little did Buck know that most of those late hours were spent by the male witch protecting or rescuing innocents from evil.
"I bet when you're his age, your children will be saying the same thing about you to their dates," said Angelica with a twinkle in her eyes.
"I ain't never having kids," said Buck decisively. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to have much fun with children around him.
The bell rang and the two teenagers parted to go to their separate home-rooms.
Once the school's playground had emptied, Olivia orbed there - she'd already been enrolled into the school and thought it would impress her charge that wasn't very punctual on most mornings, if she arrived into school late. The Elders had pulled some strings and made sure that the Whitelighter was put into the same home-room as Buck.
The girl slowly walked in through the building's main entrance then slowly made her way to her new home-room. She had to arrive later than everyone else to keep in character. The Elders had magically implanted all the recent information about Buck into her mind so that she could do whatever it took to fit in with him.
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The school's oldest teacher, Mrs. Smith, stopped Buck as he walked into the home-room that morning, knowing that he would be the best person to ask about showing a new girl around the school. "Buck, we have a new girl starting today, do you think you could show her where everything is, please?"
Buck tried to hide a grin about a new girl coming into HIS class - his week just kept getting better.
"Her name's Olivia Greer..." began the teacher, before telling the boy a little bit about the girl, unaware that Buck wasn't listening after he'd heard the girl's name.
"WHAT?" exclaimed Buck, shocked by the mention of a girl he'd known years ago.
"She's just moved here from Chicago."
"OLIVIA GREER?"
"Yes, do you already know her?" Mrs. Smith could read that the boy was surprised by the name for some reason.
"She used to live near me, but moved away without saying good-bye," revealed Buck, not sure how he felt about seeing the girl again. Should he be angry that she hadn't personally said good-bye to him, or be delighted at maybe picking up where they'd left off?
"I can ask someone else to show her around if you prefer," said Mrs. Smith, sensing that Buck seemed upset at the prospect of seeing the girl again.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Smith, I don't think I can help," said Buck, and went to sit back down at his desk. He'd just realized that if he had to show Olivia around all day, he'd have to stay there through his least favorite subject - that was a sacrifice he certainly wouldn't make for the first girl who'd ever broken his heart.
Five minutes later, after roll-call, Olivia walked casually into the room, pretending that she didn't care that she was late.
"Olivia Greer?" asked Mrs. Smith, hoping that finally the lost new girl had showed up.
"Yes, that's me. I must've found the right class." Olivia approached the teacher, ready for a telling off about being late on her first day there. She continued to chew her gum, hoping the teacher would be angry with her for that as well.
"I'm glad you finally found your way here. Emma's going to show you around today, so you can go and sit down beside her." Mrs. Smith pointed to the empty seat at the front of the class, and Olivia settled at that desk and made friends with Emma.
Buck quietly watched from his seat - he didn't remember Olivia being like that when they were eight - she'd changed a lot since then.
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Later that morning, when the bell rang for the second lesson of the day, Buck groaned under his breath. Science was his worst subject, so now was the time when he'd skip out of school until the lesson was over. The boy moved through the crowd to the toilets - that was the only escape route he could use without being caught.
The boy entered the room, picked the lock on the staff only door and exited to the playground through the corridor that the janitor's room led into - he was certain they'd never guessed that pupils would escape that way when the school had been designed.
"Hey, Buck," greeted a familiar voice, as the boy turned the corner of the building, heading toward the gate.
"Olivia!" said Buck, upset to see the girl there - how dare she skip school at the same time as him - AND on her first day there! He had no idea how she'd beaten him there - last time he'd noticed, she'd been walking towards the science classrooms.
"Don't sound so happy to see me, Buck - you might sprain something," said the girl sarcastically.
"How come you're back?"
"I missed you, Buck. I think you missed me as well."
"Why did you come back here?" asked Buck angrily, not believing the girl's reason for returning.
"My dad got a better paying job here - Chicago jobs pay peanuts," explained Olivia, already having an explanation thought up for her friend. "What're you doing tonight?"
"I've got a date," answered the boy, upset that the girl could just come back into his life and think he might be free on the first night.
"Look, I'm real sorry I didn't say good-bye last time - we had to leave in a hurry. Dad had to come here and deliver the note anyway so he said he'd tell you for me."
"I was going to ask you to the junior disco that day; instead I ended up not going." Turning away from Olivia, Buck then started walking toward the gate.
Olivia hastily ran after Buck and overtook him, so that the boy almost ran into her.
"Get outta my way, O-livia," complained Buck, pronouncing the O in her name in an attempt to offend her.
The girl reluctantly stepped aside and let Buck leave the school grounds - he was nothing like the Buck she'd thought he would become.
To be continued...