part 3

for fun. enjoy

The halls had cleared as people headed to class.

Everyone but Cordelia, that is. She was stalking the halls looking for her prey.

One Xander Harris.

He had shown her up for the last time. The concert was the last straw. That dweeb could not have his life get better; he had to suffer for what he did to her!

And everywhere she turned, someone was talking about what cool thing Xander was doing now.

That had to stop.

NOW!

Across the campus, Xander was going through his locker, getting his books for the day, and hoping it was going to be a nice calm day.

No one upset, no one yelling. Just plenty of class work... What am I thinking? Xander asked himself.

As he walked to class, he felt like he was on display. Everyone was watching and whispering about him.

What's going on?

Cordelia spotted her prey, and moved in. This would be so good. She had worked all weekend for this. She would cut him to the bone, leave him humbled before her.

As she was closing in on him, she passed Harmony and Aura, and she heard them talking.

"Look here. This picture - that's Xander's Hawaiian shirt..." Harmony said, watching Cordelia out of the corner of her eye. "And from what the reporter said, she had slept in it the night before."

Cordelia immediately came to a screeching halt.

"How do you know it was his shirt?" Aura asked.

"Just look at the picture. He wore that last week. How did she get it, though? Hmmm?" Harmony continued, "And they did say that there was a young man sleeping in the hotel with her. Just look in the background - that's Xander."

Cordelia snatched the magazine away from Harmony, as her eyes filled with rage. There he was - Xander, sleeping on a bed in the background.

And Maria WAS wearing his shirt. She remembered it distinctly; he had worn it the day she had confronted him about the models. Now he was doing it again.

"Hey, Cordelia, you all right?"

Cordelia just stared at the picture, not really thinking of anything in particular. Just that Xander hurt her. And every time she started to get over it, he did something like this.

He was NOT supposed to get better, only worse! And NO ONE gets over Cordelia Chase!

"Cordelia? Hi, my name is Anya."

Cordelia just stood there. Now she could hear all the conversations going on around her. How Xander did this and how he did that. How he played both Willow and Cordelia, used them, then threw Cordelia away and kept the redhead around, so he could have a little plaything to go along with Mrs. Evans.

"I heard Xander..." that was as far as Anya got.

Cordelia whipped and knocked out the young woman with a single punch. She was tired of hearing about Xander! She turned and marched right at him, as Harmony and Aura watched with wide eyes.

"Xander Harris! How could you?"

"Do what?"

"You...You...Dweeb!"

"And again with the 'Huh?'"

Then everything she had thought up over the last day was gone. He had those cute puppy dog eyes. God, how can he use those? I'm mad at him!

"Moron!" Then she turned and stormed away, stepping over the unconscious form of Anya.

"Well, today is off to a great start," Xander said, looking after Cordy.

All day, Xander just about ran from Cordelia. Every room she came into, he was leaving through another door. He even found a way to be called to the office so he would not be in his one class with her. It was very bad; Snyder had been looking for a reason to hall him in and he had to give him one. It was kind of fun to do something, just to be called into the Office. But it took him 3 tries to get it just right. And then Snyder almost walked down the wrong hall.

How can someone that is always there when you don't want him never there when you do? Xander wondered.

The rest of the day went smoothly. The only thing going on was that Angel was up to something. But then he had always been up to something.

So, after the Scooby meeting was over, he had to get over to his real parents' house, as he had come to think of them. He couldn't spend much time with them, but what time he did get, he took. And since the classroom kiss, he could not practice with someone that knew what he trying to do. He REALLY didn't want to hurt anyone... or himself.

As he left the meeting, he didn't notice that Buffy was following him.

Later that night, he had a fine meal with the Evans. Xander hardly ever went home anymore, and his adopted parents never even noticed. He just went to their house to sleep, and sometimes not even that. Since his big change, he didn't need to sleep as much any way, and a few other changes were going on, too.

Xander was helping Max with the dishes while Liz graded some papers.

"Uh, Dad." Xander started.

"Yeah, what's on your mind?" Max could tell something had been bothering Xander all night.

"I used my powers to save someone while I was in Boston," Xander said, not looking up.

"Ok. Would they have died if you hadn't helped?"

"Yeah. Her head was split open."

"Then you did good. But there might be repercussions to what you did tho."

"Yeah, big ones. I got flashes from her. And I think she got some from me."

"Healing doesn't always do that. You will get flashes from them. But they don't always get them from you."

"I think she did. She wasn't a normal human."

"She was an alien?" Liz spoke up from the table where she had been listening to the men in her life talk.

"No, she's a Slayer."

"A what?" Max asked.

"Well, you remember that I didn't freak too much about you guys not being completely human? Well, there's all kinds of not-human stuff here in SunnyHell. It all started with this girl..."

It took him over an hour to tell them everything; about Slayers, Watchers and things that go bump in the night.

"Why haven't We seen anything like that?" Max asked.

"It could be that we're not exactly human, anymore." Liz said.

"Oz did say I didn't smell the same," Xander noted after his new parents gave him a funny look. "He's a Werewolf. And the only way to test it is to ask and I don't really want to go asking a Vampire if I smell human."

"Ok, let's get back to the girl. Are you sure she was a Slayer?" Liz asked.

"Yeah. I got flashes from her. She's had a bad life, even worse than mine. I wanted to stay and help her, but if the Council found out about us, there's no telling what they would do. I mean, they kill anything that is not human, just to make sure it can't hurt anyone. They send teenage girls out to fight without any help except an old guy with books."

"Could this girl find you?" Max asked.

"I don't know. She is from the other side of the country."

"So, we don't worry about it unless she shows up."

"But I wanted to help her."

"You did. But you wanted to protect us. Sometimes you have to make very hard decisions; that's what growing up means. I could help everyone brought into the hospital, so no one would ever have to die there, but I can't.

"First, it would get the FBI back to looking at us, and then it would affect everyone in the family. Isabel would have to go into hiding and Maria and Michael would, too. But you did all you could do."

"I know, but was it enough?"
"It was. She's alive."

"So what else happened today?" Liz asked getting off the subject.

"Well, Cordy called me a moron for no reason."

"Sounds like Michael and Maria, don't they?" Max asked his wife, who started to laugh at the wide-eyed look on Xanders face.

After Xander had left to go home, he didn't notice that Buffy was standing across the street, watching.

What's Xander doing there? she asked herself, and decided to follow him home.

On the way, she saw a vampire begin sneaking up behind him. She started to move in closer to stake him, when the vamp stopped and sniffed the air. Then he shook his head and walked away.

Now what the HELL is going on? she asked herself.