As Odette sluggishly walked up to Sunnydale High, guitar case in hand she cursed the universe for the unwarranted, extremely sunny day. Watching the teens mill past her she almost wished she was actually dreaming. She paused as a unfamiliar blond strode past her up the steps and Odette turned just in time to see a black Jeep Cherokee pull away from the sidewalk and she raised and eyebrow.
Before she could delve into the particular mystery a very loud, very brash voice broke through her train of thought.
"Scuse me, comin' through, pardon me"
Glancing back, she shook her head, and leaned against the railing at the top of the steps as she watched Xander, doing his usual bob and weave through the crowd on his skateboard.
"'Scuse me, not sure how to stop! Please move, whoa, 'scuse me..." he trailed off as he neared Odette, staring hypnotically somewhere behind her. If Odette where to take a guess, it was probably at the blond newcomer making her way into the building. With an awed 'whoa' he didn't notice that he was headed right for the stair railing, which he crashed into it and fell beneath it, grunting in pain. Odette snickered and Xander flipped her off from his prone position.
Odette waved to Willow as she stepped over Xander's legs and gave Xander a questioning look.
He smiled, "I'm Okay. I feel good." Odette rolled her eyes and glanced sidelong at Willow who smiled and tucked her hair behind an ear. Frowning, Odette crossed her arms and looked away. It wasn't that she had anything against Willow liking Xander, really she didn't. but she had told her many times previously that most guys are extremely oblivious. If she didn't tell him that she was interested in him, he'd never see her as more than his buddy. But Willow was certain that Xander would come to the conclusion on his own.
Stumbling to his feet Xander smiled winningly at his redheaded friend. "Willow! You're so very much the person that I wanted to see!"
Odette came up on her other side and leaned to stage whisper in her ear. "Carful this has 'Xander wants a favor' written all over it."
Willow giggled as Xander reached around to smack Odette on the shoulder. She merely smiled and stuck her tongue out at him. "You wound me Det!" he exclaimed, putting an exaggerated hand over his heart. Odette held the door open and gave him an unimpressed as he and willow passed. Xander shrugged and fell back into pace with his friends. "Ya, well ya see, I kinda had a problem with the math." Odette smacked her forehead and Willow tried to hide a small smile.
"Uh, which part?"
Xander opened his mouth, but Odette beat him to it. "Knowing Cobwebs for brains here, probably the addition and subtraction." She dodged back just intime to miss Xander's swipe at her.
Turning red he sheepishly turned back to Willow. "Det's just being mean, but I really could use the help. Can you help me out tonight, pleeeease, be my study buddy?"
"Well, what's in it for me?"
"A migraine." Odette snickered and Xander caught her in a headlock, and covered her mouth.
"Shut up Det, how about a shiny nickel!"
Willow pretended to think about it before grinning, " Okay. Do you have 'Theories in Trig'? You should check it out."
"Check it out?"
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Odette could feel a headache brewing behind her eyes. "Oh my god Xander, you are so thick. The library? Where my dad works? With books? Its got lots of pages, and you read these little things called words."
Xander opened his mouth to retort but Odette was saved from his ire by their fourth friend sideling up beside them and he pointed at Xander. "You see the new girl?"
Odette blinked dumbly, before realizing they must be talking about the pretty blond she'd seen before. Xander grinned back at Jesse. "That's right, I saw her. Pretty much a hottie!"
Odette sighed, "Oh joy, so glad your standards are so face value Xan."
"I heard someone was transferring..." Willow mumbled trying to ignore Xander's comments.
Odette listened as the two boys jabbed back and forth about what little they knew about the newcomer. Until she heard something clatter to the floor. Turning she say the topic of the boy's discussion apologizing and scrambling to pick up her fallen bag and its contents. Odette handed off her guitar case to Willow before doubling back and crouching to grab a stack of papers and paused as she grabbed a pair of butterfly clips. "Oh cool I have these at home." She smiled as she handed them back to the blond who took them with and grateful smile.
Xander crouches nearby and reaches for some folders. "Can I have you?" he studders.
Odette face palmed as the new girl frowned confused before Xander stubbled to correct himself. "Dyeh – can I help you?"
"Oh, thanks."
"I don't know you, do I?"
"OK." Odette interrupts exasperated. Her hand coming around to smack into Xander's chest, sending him right on to his butt. "I appologise, this moron is Xander, he never thinks before he opens his mouth." Holding out her hand she smiled brightly, "I'm Odette."
"I'm Buffy. I'm new."
The warning bell chimed, signaling us we had to get moving. Unfortunately, Xander felt the need to open his mouth again. "Well, uh, maybe I'll see you around... maybe at school... since we... both... go there."
"Great" Buffy said uncertainly, as she gathered her things and headed off down the hall.
Odette slapped Xander upside the head. "We both go to school. You are an idiot Xan."
Xander opens his mouth to defend himself before he glances down and picks something up off the floor, quickly turning to call after the new girl. "Oh, hey! Hey, you forgot your... stake!" But Buffy doesn't hear him and continues down the hall. The bell ringing cut off any response Odette would have given.
"Oh, hells bells, dad is gonna kill me when he finds out I was late." Odette cursed and sped off towards class.
************************************OG*************************
Odette was finishing up getting changed from the end of P.E and let out a groan as two of the most obnoxious voices reverberated off the walls. Wasn't P.E torcher enough? Did she have to sit though another on of Aphrodisia and Aura's gab sessions. What she wouldn't give to be locker mates with anyone else. Hell, even Cordelia would be preferential to these air heads.
"The new kid? She seems kind of weird to me. What kind of name is Buffy?"
Rolling her eyes skyward, Odette prayed for patience. Muttering under her breath. "Says the diva named Aphrodisia."
"Well, the chatter in the caf is that she got kicked out, and that's why her mom had to get a new job."
Scoffing Odette spun, "Oh please, like you two are angels. Tell me Aphrodisia, how did daddy dearest like it when you got caught shoplifting that purse from mall?"
Said shoplifter got right up into Odette's face, and she was so close to escalating the situation when Aura unlocked her locker and screamed. Odette jerked around and froze as whatever fell out of Aura's locker thunked to the floor. Her insides went cold as the girls around her screamed and ran. It was a body. The guy was probably only a few years older than them, messy hair, leather jacket. He had fallen face up, eyes open and unseeing. He was pale, the color of his yellow shirt was torn, and a crescent shape etched in dried blood sat on his collarbone.
Odette felt her stomach roll and she rushed to the toilet just in time to lose the contents of her stomach. Stumbling out of the stall she found the nearest wall and slide down it. She watched as her hands began to shake and wrapped them around her knees to draw them to her chest. It felt like hours but it was probably only few minutes before Coach Foster came in and helped her stagger to the principles office.
************************************OG*************************
Later seated behind one of the bookcase dividers in her dad's library after having given her account the police, a cup of lavender tea in her hand and her dad hopelessly hovering that she heard the library doors slam open.
"OK, what's the sitch?"
Her dad winced and peaked around the bookcase to the library doors. "Sorry?"
"You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the locker?"
Dad glanced at her nervously before nodding walking out and standing at the railing. Odette stood and step forward just enough to peek around the bookcase. It was Buffy, and she looked pissed.
Buffy dropped her bag on the table and headed up the stairs. "Cause, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little, little holes in his neck, and all his blood's been drained." She stopped right in front of him and crossed her arms in a huff. "Aren't you just going, ooo?"
Odette blinked in confusion as her father wrung his hands, "I was afraid of this."
Buffy's shoulders slumped slightly, "well I wasn't. It's my first day. I was afraid that I was gonna be behind in all my classes, that I wouldn't make any friends, that I would have last month's hair. I didn't think there would be vampires on campus. And I don't care."
Odette felt her stomach drop. 'vampires' she thought incredulously. Expecting her father to laugh at the blond but when her father responded, Odette thought she just might be sick again.
"Then why are you here?"
Buffy froze, before recovering. "To tell you that... I don't care, which... I don't, and... have now told you, so... bye."
She turned away and began to make a hasty exit before she was stopped by his next words. "Is he, w-will he... rise again?"
"Who?"
Her father glanced back at her before turning again to Buffy. "The boy."
"No, he's just dead."
"Can you be sure?"
"To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you. Why am I still talking to you?"
As she turned to beat a hasty retreat Odette felt her legs turn to jelly and backed against a bookshelf and used it to help herself gently to the floor. This had to be a bad dream right? Her father was talking to this blond bombshell about a dead guy that was killed by vampires. It was lunacy. It was impossible. But one look at the tense conversation and she knew no one was having a laugh. Her father leaned over the railing calling after Buffy.
"You really have no idea what's going on, do you? You think it's coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning."
Once again Buffy furiously turned back to him. "Oh, why can't you people just leave me alone?"
"Because you are the Slayer." Odette heard her father his, as he went down the stairs like an incoming storm. "Because you are the Slayer. Into each generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, the Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill…"
"With the strength and skill to hunt vampires. To stop the spread of their eviil blah blah blah. I've heard it, OK?" Buffy interrupted with irritation.
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't understand this attitude. I haven't gotten this much sass since I told Odette she wasn't going to an out-of-town concert on a school night. You've accepted your duty; you've slain vampires before."
"Yeah, and I have both been there, and done that. And I'm moving on."
Raising a single finger Odette watched her father spin and rush to his office. "What do you know about this town?"
Buffy shrugged, "It's two hours on the freeway from Nieman Marcus."
As he returned with a stack of books Giles continued, "Dig a bit in the history of this place and you'll find there've been a steady stream of fairly odd occurrences. I believe this area is a center of mystical energy. Things gravitate towards it that you might not find elsewhere."
"Like vampires…." Odette whispered hoarsely and her dad's head jerked towards her as he was reminded of her presence, and he winced giving her an apologetic look before turning to Buffy and handing her a stack of books.
"Like zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi. Everything you ever dreaded under your bed and told yourself couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real."
"What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series? Did you get the free phone?" Buffy mocked and Odette croaked out a disbelieving laugh.
"He got the calendar actually."
Shaking her head Buffy shoved the stack of books back at him. "Cool. Ok, first of all, I'm a vampire slayer. And secondly, I'm retired. Hey, I know! Why don't you kill them."
Her father stumbled, "I'm a Watcher. I haven't the skill."
Buffy waived away his excuse. "Oh, come on. Stake through the heart, a little sunlight, it's like falling off a log."
"a Slayer slays, a Watcher..." He started to say but Buffy interrupted.
"Watches?"
"NO!" Odette winced, unused to her dad raising his voice, as he dropped the stack of books on a nearby table. "He, he trains her, he, he, he prepares her..."
Buffy scoffed. "Prepares me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me."
They just look at each other for a moment. Before Buffy exhales, turns and leaves the library in disgust.
"Damn" He hissed, and as her dad hesitates for an instant Odette called out, "Dad?"
His shoulders slump and he meet her eyes through the railing. "I'm sorry Detty, I am, I promise I will explain everything later, but….I…I have to…." He trails off and runs out after Buffy.
Odette blinked furiously to fight back hysterical tears, breathing deeply and catches sight of a shadow moving across the bookcases in front of her. She nearly laughed as Xander staggered out from behind a bookshelf, 'Theories in Trigonometry' clutched to his chest. And as he met her gaze, a few tears did break through, and she gave him a watery smile.
"What the hell, am I right?"