Chapter Fourteen - She Finally Makes an Appearace...

A/N:This chapter was written by Ozlover.

"Mmm...Saturday. Yay." Buffy mumbled as she dragged herself out of bed. She'd had a dream about Angel. He and she were in a club called the Bronze back in Sunnydale and they were dancing to a slow song when Spike came up with a bottle of Corona and started yelling at Buffy. And then Darla (Buffy didn't know what she looked like, so her imagination kind of made her up) was there and she had a grey cat that kept hissing at her an Angel. All in all it was a pleasant dream until the Spike and Darla showed up.

"Yay? Did you forget what today is?" Willow asked as she too sat up in bed. It was about nine in the morning and sunlight was streaming into the room.

"Apparently." Buffy said. "Why, what's today.?"

"Darla's making her apprearance." Willow answered.

"Gah." Buffy fell back over in bed and pulled the covers over her head.

"Hey, you asked." Willow reminded her.

"I know, I know..." Buffy sighed. "Will, I have to tell you something."

"What?" Willow asked, immediately concerned.

"Well...last night, Angel and I kinda kissed." Buffy said, feeling guilty.

"That's great!" Willow exclaimed. Then she looked at Buffy's pained expression. "Ok, that's not great. Why is that not great?"

"Because I liked it. And because Spike." Buffy answered.

Willow nodded in understanding.

"I'm so confused! But now Angel's gonna see Darla and forget all about me." Buffy said sadly.

"And you care?"

"Well, yeah, I care." Buffy said, surprised that Willow would even ask that.

"Well, it's hard to know what to tell you, Buff. I don't know if I should be saying 'Darla could never compare to you, Angel likes you way more' or 'Good, now Angel has Darla and he won't distract you from Spike'." Willow said.

"I'm sorry..." Buffy apologized.

"Don't be. You're strong. I know you can figure this out. And I think that deep down, your heart's already decided who you really want, so you don't need to be asking me." Willow said, giving her best friend an encouraging smile. Buffy grinned widely and jumped over to Willow's bed and the two girls hugged tightly.

They got dressed to go downstairs. Buffy put on her new brown mini-skirt and a pink tank top. Willow put on a light pink mini-skirt and a white halter top. When they got downstairs they saw that Oz, Angel, Xander and Connor were already awake and watching TV.

"What's on?" Buffy asked. She sat down next to Xander and Willow sat on Oz's lap.

"Just more stuff about that girl that was found raped, but nothing new, really." Angel answered. There was a long silence.

"Hey, has anyone seen Snoopy?" Cordelia asked as she emerged from upstairs. Nobody had.

"I wonder where he is..." Willow said. The other three dogs were there, running around and yipping-except for Turtle, who was under the coffee table. Again.

"I don't, I'm glad he's gone." Buffy said, happy that the little puppy wasn't pestering her. Willow reached over and hit her arm playfully. Buffy smiled sheepishly.

There was a tapping on the sliding glass door.

"What's that?" Cordelia asked. They looked over at the door and saw nothing

"I dunno..." Buffy got up to look. There was Snoopy, looking damp and covered with beach sand. She opened the door, going to pick him up to maybe bring him into the bathroom to wash him off. He had other plans. He burst threw the door, running over to Beans and Fuzzball, yipping excitedly and then running back to Buffy to encirle her. While he was doing this he was spreading sand everywhere. Finally, Buffy was able to snatch him.

"Great." Buffy said, looking at the sand all over the living room.

"I guess we should clean this up." Willow said, sighing.

"I'll clean Snoopy off." Buffy said, heading upstairs to the bathroom.

Willow, Xander, Oz, Angel, Connor, Cordelia and Dawn, who'd passed Buffy on the stairs on her way down, all cleaned up the living room. A loud banging on the door made everyone stop what they were doing.

Xander walked over and opened the door. There stood a girl with blonde, shoulder length hair and tons of bags scattered around her. "Hey I'm Darla, Angel's girlfriend." She stuck out her hand and Xander took it and shook it politlely. She looked over and saw Angel sitting on the couch.

"Hey, Baby!" Darla said happily as she pushed past Xander, rushed over to Angel and hugged him tightly.

"Hey, Darla. Uh, these are my friends." Angel said. He went on to introduce everyone in the room.

"You told me on the phone that there were eight people inlcuding you. This is only seven." Darla pointed out.

"Yeah, Buffy's upstairs." Angel answered. "Here...I'll get your bags." He headed outside to grab the bags. He was glad when Xander, Oz and Connor offered to help. There were way too many bags for one person to carry. Xander led the way up the stairs to where Darla would be rooming. It was at the very end of the hallway and very similar to Willow and Buffy's and Dawn and Cordelia's. She thanked the guys and stayed in her room to get her things settled in. The guys headed back downstairs.

Buffy was sitting on her knees, leaning over the tub scrubbing off Snoopy. When he was clean she took him out and toweled him off. She then cleaned out the tub, which had sand stuck all in it.

"What should I do, Snoopy?" Buffy asked the puppy as she finished drying him off with a towel. "Darla's coming today. Should I tell Angel how I feel? Or should I just forget my feelings about him and be glad that I have Spike?"

Snoopy just yipped softly and stuck his tongue out happily. He had such a simple life. She envied him.

If Buffy didn't tell Angel how she felt before Darla came, she wouldn't have another chance. She was determined to tell him. He'd kissed her, right? So he i must /i have some feelings for her.

She let Snoopy out of the bathroom just as Angel was walking towards the stairs. She pulled him away from the other guys.

"Hi." She said, feeling her confidence slowly draining away.

"Hi." Angel returned, unsure of why she pulled him aside.

"So...About what happened last night..." She started, moving a little bit closer to him. Angel didn't say anything. He noticed Darla coming out of her room. Buffy's back was to her. He and Buffy were standing suspiciously close and he didn't want to make his girlfriend upset on her first day being there. So, even though he wanted to be near Buffy more than anything, he slowly backed away.

"Angel?" Buffy inquired. She was confused.

"Angel, who's your friend?" Darla asked as she came up from behind Buffy, who jumped slightly at the sudden voice.

"Oh, this is my friend, Buffy." Angel answered. Buffy felt herself sinking. Darla was here and she missed her chance...Buffy's imagination seemed to put emphasis on the word 'friend'. i I must be nothing more than a friend to him /i Buffy realized, feeling a horrible knot twisting inside of her.

"Hi, nice to meet you." Buffy said numbled, shaking Darla's extended hand.

"You too." Darla replied sweetly. Buffy thought she saw a small sneer on her face, but it must be her jumbled mind, making things up. Buffy scanned Darla- almost as if she were compitition or something...and maybe she was. Buffy didn't want to belive she was going to be fighting with another girl for Angel's attention...But it sure looked like it was going to be that way.

Darla was wearing a skimpy black skirt- one of the shortest Buffy had ever seen, and a sleeveless button up,see through white shirt that was notted at the top, just below her chest. And she was wearing a black bra underneath, obviously, the shirt was see through...That was when Buffy labled her a skank. The still sane part of her knew she was judging Darla so harshly because she was Angel's girlfriend. So she just drifted back downstairs without another word to Angel or his skank- girlfriend! She meant girlfriend...

Everyone ate breakfast together and got to know Darla. She seemed sweet enough...

The nine teens decided to change into their bathing suits and head to the beach. The guys played football, Darla layed on a beach towel and tanned while the girls all swam together and talked.

"I don't know...I just don't like her." Buffy said, glancing at Darla on the shore. "I know it doesn't seem fair that I'm judging her before I know her..." She trailed off.

"I know what you mean." Dawn said.

"Yeah, she's just...too perfect. It's weird." Cordelia replied.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean, she's just...ugh." Buffy said, smiling that all four of the girls were together and connecting.

When everyone was tired of swimming and playing football and tanning the decided to do something else.

"I think there's a band playing on the beach a little ways down from here. We could check it out." Xander suggested. Everyone agreed. The teens changed and headed over to the beach. Some garage band called Seven Days was playing. They played alternative music and the teens stayed and danced for awhile before heading back to the house for the left-over pizza.

"How old is this pizza?" Darla asked as she and the other girls were eating in the kitchen.

"Only three days." Dawn answered.

"So it's still good?" Darla asked.

Dawn nodded. Darla finally took a bite of the pizza.

"Are there any good nail salons around here?" Darla asked suddenly.

"Yeah, I think there's a couple around here. I know there's one in the mall." Willow answered.

"Good, 'cause I need my nails re-done." Darla replied, inspecting her chipped french-tipped nails.

"We could all do that tomorrow." Buffy suggested. The other girls all agreed.

"So...How long have you and Angel been together?" Cordelia asked because it was the only thing she could think to say to her.

"Almost a year and a half." Darla said, smiling proudly. "And everything's going smoothly."

"Good for you." Buffy said, trying not to sound jealous.

Darla smiled. When the girls finished eating they went to find the guys. They were in the basement playing video games. As soon as they were in the room Darla immediately walked over to Angel, sat in his lap and started making out with him, which kind of caught everyone off-guard. When Darla finally pulled away, she glanced at Buffy out of the corner of her eye. When the two girls' eyes met, Buffy dropped her icy gaze.

"You're still playing Monkeyball." Willow observed with a smirk.

Xander nodded his head vigorously, not taking his eyes off the screen. He was playing against Connor and was determinded to win.

"But you said it was a girly game." Cordelia said slyly, grinning.

"It is. But it's a very addicting girly game." Xander replied. the girls giggled.

"Argh! Are you sure you can't jump?" Xander asked, getting all excited.

"I'm sure." Angel answered.

"Greeeat." Xander replied. Connor beat Xander and played against Angel next.

Suddenly, Buffy remembered something. "Uh, I'm gonna go to my room." She said as she got up and left the room. When she got into her and Willow's room she grabbed her cell phone and flopped down on the bed with it. She had told Spike she would call him Saturday...which was today. She had his number on voice dial, so said his name and her phone dialed his apartment number. He picked up on the second ring.

" 'Ello?"

"Hey, Spike."

"Oh, hey Buffy. How've you been?" He asked.

They talked for about fifteen minutes about nothing in particular.

"Bye, Buffy."

"Bye."

"I love you." Spike said sincerely. There was a silence.

"I love you too." Buffy said back. She wasn't sure if she was lying or not, so she didn't know if she should be feeling guilty. She just didn't know.

Whens got back to the basement everyone was getting up.

"What are we doing now?" Buffy asked.

"Wer're going swimming in the pool." Angel answered. Buffy sighed and followed Willow back up to their room to change into their bathingsuits.

By the time Buffy and Willow were outside almost everyone else was already out there. The two girls exchanged glances, smiling and ran and jumped into the pool holding hands, making a big splash.

"Angel, come in with me?" Darla asked sweetly from her place in the hot tub.

"In a minute, Honey." Angel replied. He, Xander, Connor, Oz, Willow and Buffy managed to play football in the pool. It was the girls plus Xander versus The other three guys. The girls and Xander were winning.

Darla rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the magazine she was reading. Dawn and Cordelia were laying in the sun on lawn chairs, occasionally getting splashed by the people in the pool. Eventually they were so wet they decided that they should just go in the pool, so they did. And then the teams switched to girls vs guys. Xander kept tackling Cordelia and causing the game to pause for a moment while everyone watched on in amusement as he chased the shrieking Cordelia around the pool until he caught her.

"Angel, are you coming?" Darla asked again. Truthfully, Angel was having fun in the pool, but didn't want to make Darla mad- he knew how she could get when she was mad. So he agreed and stayed in the hot tub with her for about ten minutes before saying he was too hot and got out to go back in the pool. For about nine out of the ten minutes Darla was all over Angel.

They stayed in the pool until around dinner-time, when it started to thunderstorm. Jenny made dinner again. She made hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans and a salad- Nothing too big, considering she had to make enough to fill up nine teenagers and two adults.

After dinner everyone went back down to the basement to watch a movie on the PS2. They watched a horror movie- Stephen King's i It /i . The girls hid their faces when Pennywise the Clown(I think his name was Pennywise...) came on. If being a clown wasn't scary enough, he had long yellow fangs, blood-red eyes and long, black claws.

"I'm scarred for life." Buffy whimpered. She had a fear of clowns. ( A/N:That was for you...You know who you are. lol).

The teens decided to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep for once.

"Will, I think we should lock the door tonight." Buffy said into the blackness.

"Why?" Willow asked.

"Because I might kill Darla in my sleep...well...I might be awake." Buffy answered. Willow giggled.

"G'night Buffy."

"G'night...I'm serious about the lock thing, though."

Willow didn't respond. She was already half-asleep. Buffy drifted off to sleep soon after.