Chapter 12- False Sense of Security

A/N: This chapter was written by Ozlover

It was seven AM and Willow was up hours ago partly because she was anticipating the day ahead...and partly because Buffy woke her up with her crazy sleep-rambles.

000Two hours ago000

Beans and Snoopy were in the room with them. Beans was curled up at the foot of Willow's bed and Snoopy was on Buffy's. Snoopy got freaked out by something, like usual, and he let out a loud yip.

That's what got Buffy started... "Bless you!...Angel, you don't sound too well...I think you're getting a cold...You should have some Corona, it always solves my problems...except for that time...when it didn't...when the pickles needed to be judged and you were too busy painting me a picture...of...grey cats...cuz they're the best..." She babbled for about half an hour before falling back asleep...

000Present time000

Another day of not being grounded. Willow thought. God, had she took it for granted before. She pulled on a pair of army camoflauge shorts and a beige cami that had a slight ruffle in the middle then split at the bottom so that her stomach showed. When she came downstairs she saw that Oz was awake as well, watching TV on the couch.

"Hi." Willow said softly before wrapping her arms around him and sitting in his lap.

"Hi to you too." Oz said, kissing her lips gently. A sudden voice made them both jump.

"Will, do you have hot wings? Or pickles?" Buffy asked from in the kitchen. Apparently Willow and Oz weren't the only ones awake.

"Uh...I don't know." Willow gave Oz a confused look, untangled herself from him and headed into the kitchen. "Pickles and hot wings, huh? Sounds like it's someone's time of the month..." Willow trailed off.

"That obvious, huh?" Buffy asked, her head was still hidden inside a cabinet.

"A little." Willow confessed.

"So?..." Buffy asked. "Pickles, or hot wings, pickles or hot wings?" Buffy lifted her arms up and down as if she were holding up two different things. "Ooh! I got it! Pickled hot wings!" Buffy squealed happily.

"Eww, do you know how disgusting that sounds to anyone who isn't you?" Willow asked. Buffy just shrugged and continued rummaging through various cabinets searching for some type of food that would catch her eye. Willow just shook her head and smiled.

It took her a few minutes, but Buffy managed to find a bag of hot wings in the freezer and a jar of pickles in the fridge. At least they're not grey. She thought as she opened the jar. Wow...That was random. She cooked a few hot wings in the microwave and placed a few pickles onto the plate next to them.

When she emerged from the kitchen with her plate Xander was there, sitting on a couch, so she went to sit next to him.

"Hey, watcha got there, Buff? Are we sharing?" Xander asked, eying Buffy's plate hungrily. Buffy drew the plate back, becoming defensive of her pickles and wings. Xander gave his best puppy dog face and she gave in.

"Fine." She sighed, moving the plate so that both of them could reach it. Willow and Oz just sat on the other couch, watching them eat with amusement.

"Xand, are you PMS-ing or something?" Cordelia asked her boyfriend bluntly as she stood at the bottom of the stairs. She couldn't help but smile...he was just so cute.

Xander looked up after having shoved a wing and pickle in his mouth at once. "Uh, no...why?"

"Just curious." She said as she walked over to the couch he and Buffy were sittiing on. Since it was a loveseat and there was no room she sat on the arm of the chair next to Xander.

The next to come down the stairs were Connor and Angel. Apparently Angel had some 'inner turmoil' last night and had woken them both up by singing in his sleep.

"Yeah...I couldn't really sleep after that." Connor said, only half joking.

"Where's Dawn?" Connor asked as casually as he could. It had been half an hour since he and Angel came down, but his girlfriend was nowhere to be seen.

"I think she's still sleeping." Cordelia answered. "She was really tired last night."

"I'll go check on her." Connor volunteered.

"No, it's fine, I'll do it. She can be a little testy when she first wakes up." Cordelia said as she went upstairs.

Connor had really wanted to check on her...

"Dawn?" Cordelia asked as she stepped into the room. "Are you awake?" She was answered by a grunting noise. "Connor was wondering where you were."

"Huh?" Dawn sat up, hearing his name. "Oh...yeah. Ok, I'll be down in a sec."

Cordelia nodded and left the room. Dawn changed into a denim pleated mini-skirt and a white halter top that had little pink and brown flowers and gold butterflies on it. When she came downstairs everyone was making plans for the day.

"Well...we really need to go bathing suit shopping." Buffy said. She and Xander had finished off the pickles and hot wings a few minutes ago.

"Yeah." Dawn piped up. She went and sat on the floor in front of Cordelia.

"Ok...you can do that...and we can do something else." Xander said, 'we' meaning him and the other guys.

"Are you sure you don't wanna watch us try bathing suits on?" Cordelia asked slyly.

"Ok, as tempting as that sounds...Ok, that does sound tempting...We're on a mission." Xander finished. The guys had no idea what he was talking about, but they played along. Xander had been bathing suit shopping before and he knew that it was all fun and games until he became the bag boy, or the guy that gets to exchange sizes, or the guy that has to sit and listen to the women cry and whine about how fat they were when they really weren't...and he was tired of being everyone's butt monkey!

"A mission? Like, for what?" Willow asked.

"Well...we're going to try to hit every video game store in the area...and...stop for movies...cuz we need entertainment." Xander said. The guys agreed.

"Ok, suit yourselves..." Cordelia said, slightly disappointed that Xander wouldn't be there to watch her try on skimpy bikinis. But she, being who she was, would never let it show.

"Maybe we should, like...meet somewhere after everyone is done shopping." Willow suggested.

"Good idea...How about that pizza place down by the beach that we passed...I can't remember the name, but it's the building is purple and blue..." Xander trailed off.

"Yeah, we know where that is. It's by that cafe Dawn and I went to...once." Cordelia almost said that they saw Joe there.

"Ok." Xander said, clapping his hands together. "It's settled."

"Wait, what time should we meet?" Oz asked.

"How about...noon.?" Dawn suggested. Everyone agreed, said their goodbyes and went to do their shopping...

000At the mall000

Cordelia pulled into the mall parking lot at eight, right when it opened. For the summer, it opened at eight in the morning and closed at ten at night. When they got into the mall, they knew exactly where they wanted to go...

000Random video game store000

"How about this?" Connor asked, holding up a previously owned game that came with a box.

"No, this is Dance, Dance Revolution." Xander said.

"So...?" Connor asked.

"Well...it involves moving around and dancing, which defeats the whole purpose of a video game." Xander replied.

"Which is?"

"Sitting on your butt being lazy and eating junk food in front of a TV." Xander said. "You can't eat junk food while your dancing."

"No, I guess not." Connor said, putting the game back on the shelf where he found it. "Well, you could, but it'd be really hard."

Xander made an 'eh' sound. He put his hand on Connor's shoulder. "I think we can do better."

000At the mall000

"Ohmygosh, that is soo cute on you! You have get it!" Cordelia squealed excitedly over the bathing suit Buffy tried on. It was a brown halter bikini with little pink and white dots all over it.

"You really think so?" Buffy asked, turning around to admire herself in the full length mirror in the fitting room. The three girls nodded.

"K, I'll get it." Buffy said, smiling.

000Another random video game store000

" Is this one good?" Oz asked, holding up a video game that had two guys fighting on the cover.

"Ooh, violence.." Xander said, admiring the game. "Yeah, that's good. That's always good."

000An unknown place in the mall000

He stood, hat tipped down over his eyes, watching them. Watching the four girls. He knew what had to be done- to all of them, but not here. There was too many witnesses. He would wait until the perfect time for them...and until then, well, he had other things he could do...

000Fitting room in the mall000

"Wow, this is really nice." Willow said, looking over herself in the mirror.

"And it looks great on you, Will." Cordelia said. Willow had on a white and baby blue striped halter bikini.

"Wait! Don't change back yet, I wanna see!" Dawn said from in one of the stalls. She changed into the bathingsuit she was trying on quickly and came out of the stall.

"Whoa...I love it. You should totally get it." Dawn said.

"Yours is better."

"Mine?" Dawn had forgotten she was wearing a bathing suit. It was a crimson red butterfly halter bikini. It looked really good on her. Everyone convinced her to buy it. Now the only girl who needed one was Cordelia.

000No, not another random video game store...a random video/movie store...teehee..000.

"Great. Now what are we gonna do? We, being men, obviously want violent, possibly horror movies, but the girls will want chick-flicks." Xander sighed in exasperation.

"We could compromise." Oz suggested.

"Like a violent chick-flick? Somehow I don't see that happening anytime soon." Xander said.

"Well, we can just get a couple of both." Connor suggested.

"Good idea!"

And the guys set off to look for both genres of movies.

000Yes, you guessed it- The mall. Again.000

Oh, I really like this." Cordelia said, admiring herself in the mirror as the other girls had done. She was wearing a white halter bikini with a yellow outline. For some odd reason she was attracted to the bright, cheery shade of yellow. Plus yellow looked really good on her.

(A/N: Seriously...I was in this store...and there was a yellow bikini...and I was, like, attracted to it! It was weird...yeah, that's all for now. )

"Cordelianna!" Buffy squealed. "That looks great on you, you so have to get it."

The four girls paid for their bathing suits. It was only eleven, which meant that they still had free time before they had to meet up with the guys at the pizza place. With them being in the mall, they figured, why not shop more?

000At the video/movie store000

The guys had ended up buying The Mummy, 13 Going on 30, The Excorcist, and Miss Congeniality . By that time it was about ten after eleven and they were about half an hour from the pizza place, so the guys headed out in that direction, knowing they would be early.

000Sadie's Pizza Shack000

The guys were already at the pizza place, waiting for the girls to show up. They arrived five minutes before noon and the guys, who were tired of waiting, were happy to see them.

"What movies did you rent?" Buffy asked.

"We didn't rent them, we bought them." Connor explained. "We figured we could give the chick flicks to you guys."

"Cool. Which brings us back to the first question- what movies did you get?" Buffy asked again.

"The Mummy, Miss Congeniality, 13 Going on 30, and The Exorcist." Angel answered.

"The Exorcist?" Cordelia asked incredulously.

"Yeah...Is that a problem?" Xander asked.

"Well, one time at one of our sleepovers we rented that, but we got scared after the demon possessed that girl, so we turned it off." Willow confessed.

"Ah, but this time you have strong men around to protect you." Xander said, imitating Arnold Schwarzenneger and flexing his muscles. The girls giggled.

Finally, a waiter came and took their order. They ordered one large pepperoni pizza, one large cheese pizza, one large sausage and mushroom pizza and one large pizza with everything on it. They weren't really sure what 'everything' was, but they ordered it anyway, wanting to be surprised.

They were surprised, alright. The pizza with everything on it had jalepino (can't spell that...sorry) peppers, sausage, ham, pineapple, onions, pepperoni, mushrooms, bacon and some other unidentified type of meat.

Of course, Xander was the first to try it. "Mmm." He mumbled as he took a bite of the pizza. "It's good."

Everyone else was still nervous about trying it. Buffy was brave and took a slice as well. "Hey, it is good." She confirmed.

"Your opinion doesn't count considering what you ate this morning." Willow laughed, referring to Buffy's 'pickled hot wings' breakfast. Everyone else laughed too.

"So, ladies, did you find the perfect bathingsuits?" Xander asked between bites of his pizza. All four girls nodded happily.

"And we bought some other stuff too." Dawn replied.

"Should've seen that one coming." Connor joked. Dawn kicked his foot playfully under the table.

The girls told them everything they'd bought besides the bathing suits. You'd be surprised how much they managed to buy in less than an hour. Buffy bought a brown ruffled mini-skirt with a pink and white ribbon tied at the top that would match her new bathingsuit. She also got a pair of pink flip-flops. Willow got a white babydoll top and white flip-flops that had pear-colored sequins on the straps. Dawn bought a blck Billabong tube top that had a cluster of blue flowers in one corner and a pair of cut-off denim shorts. Cordelia got a pink cami with brown lace at the top and a pink and silver leather belt.

By the time the girls finished talking about everything they bought, everyone was almost done eating. They'd ordered too much pizza and would have to bring the rest home.

"I wonder what's going on down there." Buffy said, motioning toward the growing group of people in one spot down by the beach.

"I don't know." Angel answered. "Let's go check it out." Everyone agreed. When they came closer to the crowd they could hear a man with a mega-phone say something about a sandcastle contest. Sure enough, the person (or group) that made the best sandcastle would win a hundred dollars and a fifty dollar gift certificate to Sadie's Pizza Shack. The maximum people per group was eight, so it was perfect. And you could make anything you wanted- not just a castle. So the eight teens entered the contest. They would be given fifteen minutes to think of what they wanted to make, then an hour and a half to make it.

The guys had their bathing suits on under their shorts and the girls had theirs under their clothes. So everyone stripped and the guys took a moment to drool over the girls' new bathing suits.

The contest started and the teens, along with everyone else, thought about what they should make. Amazingly, Xander was the one who came up with the best idea. No, it wasn't food. he suggested that they build a giant camera- like as tall as they were. Only it would be the kind of camera that spits out the picture right after you take. (I don't know what it's called, I'm not a camera person..., but hopefully you get what I'm saying.)

Everyone agreed on the idea and got straight to work after the fifteen minute thinking period was over. They started by making a giant mound of sand. Yes, there was occassional sand throwing. Next, they started to work the damp sand into the shape of a camera.

Buffy glanced over to see what other people were making. The group of teens to the left of them were maiing something that looked very similar to theirs. She wondered what it could be.

After an hour or so of shaping, the lump of sand actually looked like a camera- A huge one at that. It even had a giant, square picture sticking out the bottom of the camera. They continued to shape it, adding more detail to the camera, like the trigger, the lens and...other stuff. Hey, I already said I'm not a camera person...

Buffy rememered the people next to them. She looked over to see what their sculpture had ended up being, and she couldn't believe her eyes. It was a camera. Not only a camera, but the kind that the picture pops out at the bottom!

"Xander, look!" Buffy said, hitting Xander's arm to get his attention.

"Huh, what?" He asked, confused.

Buffy nodded her head in the direction where the other teens were, about twenty feet away from them.

"What the hell?" Xander whispered, obviously angered. He stormed over to the other six teens and told them what happened.

"This sucks!" Cordelia pouted.

"And I don't think theres's anything we can do about it." Willow said. "I mean, there's no way to prove it was our idea first, not theirs."

Everyone nodded. They decided to ignore the people over there and keep working on their camera.

Finally, a loud whistle blew, signalling for everyone to stop working on their sculptures. There were six judges. Three would start judging on one end of the beach and the other three would begin judging on the other side. They would meet in the middle.

When three judges came up to The teen's giant camera, they admired it. They had to look up to view all of it; it was taller than most of them.

"What do you call it?" One of the pruny old lady judges asked. They hadn't thought of a name! Xander jumped in.

"It's called Camera Fetish." He said proudly. The seven other teens giggled and laughed quietly.

The judges asked a few more questions before heading on to the other giant camera.

"Camera Fetish?" Cordelia giggled.

"Hey, it works." Xander said, smiling.

Soon the winners were announced.

"This year's third place winner is:...Bobby Sullivan and his friends!" Some guy named Bobby stepped up and took his little trophy and everyone clapped.

"Out second place winner is:...Xander Harris and his friends!" Xander jogged over and got their trophy. They'd won fifty dollars and a twenty-five dollar gift certifitcate to Sadie's Pizza Shack. Xander had such a big, goofy smile on his face, you would've thought he won the Nobel Peace Prize or something. Cordelia gave him a kiss when he got back.

The first place winner turned out to some weird middle-aged guy who made a model of Mount Rushmore.

"Go figure." Xander scoffed. "Stupid freaking geniuses." Everybody laughed. They were perfectly content with winning second place. Apparently their camera had been more detailed than the other peoples'.

They got a camera from the car and got some random beach-goer to take a picture of everyone in front of the giant camera before they destroyed it- which was as fun as making it.

The girls got into Cordelia's car and the guys got into Oz's van and they drove back to the house. As soon as they were home they went back outside and swam for an hour or so. They really needed to wash the sand off of themselves.

When they came inside and changed into dry clothes it was around four o'clock. Jenny was sitting on the couch watching TV. She had a worried expression on her face.

"What's wrong, Aunt Jenny?" Willow asked. Jenny just pointed at the television screen. Everyone looked. Another girl went missing in the area. Within the past few hours too.

"But...they caught the guy." Buffy said, confused.

"There must be another one out there."Connor said, wanting to hold Dawn and keep her safe and never let her go.

A picture of the newest missing girl came up on the screen. She had shoulder-length dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. Her name was Jordan Goodman. Everyone felt a little nervous again. They'd been out all day being worry-free when really some psychopath might've been prowling the streets. But the feeling faded after a while and the teens left the living room to go watch the movies the guys had bought.

Everyone settled down downstairs in the basement. They'd play the DVD's off the playstion. They decided to watch them upstairs because they knew that Jenny wouldn't approve of the horror movies they picked., and she didn't like to come down in the basement, so Xander knew to come down there when he didn't want her to see something. So everyone brought blankets and pillows down and set them up. They brought down the pizza too.

Dawn and Cordelia shared a blanket. Xander was on the other side of Cordelia and they were sitting very close to each other. Connor was on the other side of Dawn, sitting far enough away so it wasn't suspicious looking. But their blankets were touching, so they were holding hands beneath the two blankets. Willow and Oz were wrapped in a blanket together. Buffy was wrapped in a blanket of her own, sitting next to Willow. Ang had his own blanket as well, and was sitting next to Buffy.

They started out by watching Ms. Congeniality. Everyone agreed that it was a good movie, and it even had a tiny bit of violence, which kept the guys from freaking out during the beauty pageants.

"I had no idea Sandra Bullock looked so...ugh...without makeup..." Angel trailed off.

Then they watched The Mummy. It was okay...The guys, being guys, were yelling at the TV half the time telling the people to run faster...

Then they watched The Exorcist. The girls kept hiding their faces when the possessed girl was up on the screen.

"Eww, that's disgusting even to me!" Xander cried when the girl was stabbing herself in the bed. After watching that, everyone was happy to have a non-scary movie to watch. They watched 13 Going on 30. It was okay, but they'd seen better...well...they didn't see half of it because they fell asleep in the middle of the movie. Cordelia was the first to fall asleep, then Dawn, Willow and Buffy in that order. Eventually the guys fell asleep as well.