AN: I don't own Buffy The Vampire Slayer, or any of the characters, they belong to Joss Whedon. I just own Nikki and Rea.

Nikki's POV

"You're never going to believe this." I spoke into the payphone, briefly glancing over my shoulder to check that no members of staff were coming to tell me off. I should technically be in English now, but I had to talk to Rea and get her thoughts on what happened at the cheerleading try-outs. "What happened?" She asked curiously.

"Well, there was this girl, Amber, who was trying out to be in the cheerleading squad. And her hands literally burst into flame midway through her routine!" I explained, leaning against the wall of the phone booth. "What do you think? Witchcraft or not?"

"It's hard to tell. Spontaneous combustion is a thing, you know. People just randomly burst into flame. Scientists can't explain it, at all, it's freaky." Rea answered, her voice obviously doubtful. "You may have to investigate more. Have you considered joining the team?"

"You are kidding, right?" I questioned. "I am not becoming a cheerleader!" Rea sighed in annoyance.

"You don't have to permanently become a cheerleader. You can leave once we've decided if it's our thing or not. Going undercover might help you, that's all." She answered, and I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I think it's a bit late to try-out." I commented, briefly glancing down at my watch. "But, there's this girl I met today, who's trying out. Maybe she can help me."

"Hmm, possibly. I would just stay out of the way, Nik. You don't want to be noticed. We don't want our cover to be blown, after all." I softly sighed, playing idly with my hands. I guessed she was right. "Anyway, how's your first day going? Made any friends yet?" She continued, as I ran a hand through my hair.

"I've met some nice people. I met a girl called Willow earlier, so hopefully we could become friends. And I met that librarian you told me about, Mr Giles. He's nice." Rea let out a soft chuckle. "Of course you befriend the librarian on your first day, Nik!" She commented, with another laugh. "But I'm glad you made a friend. Met anyone else?" I paused for a moment, as I remembered Xander and Buffy. "Well, I met Willow's friends, Xander and Buffy. Buffy and I put out the girl on fire's hands. That was pretty exciting." I heard Rea take a sharp intake of breath.

"Hang on, did you just say Buffy?" She questioned, as I tilted my head slightly.

"Yes. Why?" I asked.

"Never you mind, Nik. Just stay away from her. She's dangerous. Do you understand me?" Rea instructed. I'd never heard Rea talk like this before. She wasn't afraid of anything, so why was she so worried about me getting to know Buffy? When I didn't reply, Rea spoke again. "Nik? Promise me." Before I could answer, I realised how late I was. A few minutes was a fine excuse as I was new, but a whole 20 minutes was pushing it. "Rea, I've got to go. I'm going to be really late for class." I said, picking my backpack up off the floor. "I'll see you later, OK? Bye!" I said cheerfully, immediately hanging up on her. I let out a soft sigh, rubbing my eyes. I had no idea why Rea believed that Buffy was dangerous. She was just a girl, wasn't she? I left the phone booth, and walked back over to the main school grounds, to find that the gates were shut. There was no way that I'd get these open. I rolled my eyes, and threw my bag over the gate, as my training with Rea came back to me. This should be relatively simple. Hopefully.

I placed two hands on the narrow bars, and took a step onto the bottom bar of the gate. I placed my hands higher up on the gate, and pulled myself up, so that I was at the top. In one swift motion, I put my leg over the gate, and dropped to the ground. I was now officially back on school property. And no one had noticed. Getting back on my feet, I noticed how badly my hands had been sliced open by my fall. Wincing slightly, I rummaged through my bag and produced some bandages. Reminding myself to never try and sneak out of school during the day again, I wrapped up my hands as best as I could.

Well, at least now, I wouldn't bleed to death. I pulled my bag on my back, and slowly walked down the corridor, hoping that the teacher wouldn't be too mad about me being late. I really didn't want to be expelled again.

Slowly, I stepped into the library. My teacher had sent me here to come and pick up the textbooks that I would need for the course, which I was quite glad for. That class was ridiculously boring. "Hello?" I called, discovering the library was empty. "Mr Giles? I'm here to take out some books!" The librarian appeared within moments, almost as if I had summoned him by talking about books. "Oh, hello." He greeted, adjusting his glasses and smiling at me. "Miss Reed, wasn't it?" I nodded, offering him a slight smile in return. "That's me. I'm here to take out the English texts? My teacher said you'd know what that meant." He nodded, disappearing among the huge piles of books for a moment, before he reappeared with 4 books in his arms. "Oh, good. The teacher wasn't lying when he said I had a lot to catch up on." I commented sarcastically. I looked forward to the many hours of reading I had ahead of me. As he went to hand them to me, he saw my bandaged hands, and a look of slight confusion took over his face. "What happened?" He inquired, gesturing to my hands. Self-consciously, I placed my hands in my pockets. I wasn't too fond of attracting attention to myself.

"I… I fell over." I lied.

Well, that was rather pathetic. He'd never believe that. I was awful at lying. He looked at me slightly sceptically, but thankfully didn't press me for any more information. I pulled my bag off my back, and opened it, as he checked out the books for me. One by one, he placed the books in my bag, as I looked around at the vast amount of books that this library contained. If I was a child, I would be freaking out right now. This would have been my idea of heaven back then. "So, do you read much?" The librarian inquired, as I shook my head.

"Aside from assignments, no. I used to, when I was a child. I was so obsessed with books when I was younger." I fondly smiled, my mind reminding me about all the great stories I'd read as a child. All the times I'd needed to escape from reality. "The Chronicles of Narnia were always my favourite." He softly smiled.

"What changed?" He inquired innocently, as I softly sighed.

"My parents divorced." I answered. "Suddenly, I didn't have much time for reading." I blinked away the tears that were threatening to form in my eyes, as I picked up my bag. "I'm sorry, that was inappropriate of me. Ignore everything I said. I have to go." I apologised, putting the bag on my back, and quickly walking out of the library. I heard him call my name, but I ignored him. I had to. I brushed my dark hair out of my eyes, as I turned and began to return to my class.

The next day soon came around. I hadn't heard from Rea last night, which worried me slightly. She always tended to check in on me every day, it was kind of her job to do so. As I turned around the hallway, I spotted Willow and Xander speaking quietly. I approached them, as Willow smiled at me. "Hi, Nikki." She greeted, as Xander nodded at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, wondering why Xander was so quiet this morning.

"He's nervous." Willow answered, as Xander returned to staring down the hallway. "He wants to ask out Buffy, but he thinks she'll say no." I nodded, as I noticed the girl from yesterday, Cordelia stumbling down the hallway. It was almost as if she was drunk, or not entirely aware of her surroundings. "Well, thankfully, I've never had to be in his position." I said to Willow, still watching Cordelia. "I tend to avoid guys as a rule. We don't tend to mix too well." I added, as Willow nodded. She gave a brief glance at Xander, before returning to look at me. "Oh, I'm sure there must be one guy you get on with." She commented with a soft hint of positivity in her voice. I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "No one springs to mind, Willow. Honestly, you, Buffy and Xander are the closest thing I've had to friends in a long time." I replied, softly smiling. "That was meant to be a compliment." Willow softly smiled back, but before she could say anything else, Buffy appeared at the end of the hall. "Would one of you ask her out for me?" Xander asked, grabbing hold of Willow, as he was clearly panicked. "No offence, Xander, but I barely know her. Me asking her out would be a tad weird." I answered, lightly placing a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to reassure him. "Don't be so scared, I'm sure it'll be fine." He looked at me doubtfully, as Buffy walked up to the three of us. She glanced back at Cordelia, a look of confusion taking over. "Is that even Cordelia's locker?" She inquired, as I shrugged my shoulders. "She's been acting like she's drunk for a few moments now. It's weird." I answered. Xander then went to speak, but Buffy almost immediately cut him off,

"I've got to… We can make this up later. You don't mind, do you?" Before Xander even got a chance to argue, Buffy handed him her textbooks and ran after Cordelia, who had now left the block. Against my better judgement, I apologetically smiled at Willow, before slowly jogging after Buffy and Cordelia. I had to know what was going on.

I watched from a distance, as Cordelia got into a car with the Driver's Ed teacher. I let out a sigh of irritation. Of course, she had to have a Driver's Ed lesson on the day she gets cursed, doesn't she? I crept forward, thankfully keeping out of Buffy and Cordelia's sight. Within moments, everything changed, as the car sped off, violently crashing into the cones that covered the Driver's Ed area, but thankfully avoiding all the students. Buffy and I began to run after the car, as it sped off school property and into the road, via a hedge. I slowed down my run, as Cordelia got out of the car and stood in the road. It was then I noticed it.

A large lorry, driving right towards Cordelia, which she hadn't noticed.

Panic took over me, leaving me temporarily paralyzed, as Buffy hopped over the parked car. I could only watch, as Buffy managed to push Cordelia out of the way just in time. I regained my motion, as I quickly ran over to Cordelia to make sure that both she and Buffy were OK. And possibly to confirm my suspicions that witchcraft was involved in this. When I got by Cordelia's side, I was shocked by what I saw.

Her eyes had gone completely white.

There were no pupils, or anything. It was creepy. I'd never seen anything close to this, regarding curses. If this was a witch, they were incredibly powerful. Buffy looked up at me in horror, attempting to come up with some sort of excuse about Cordelia's state, when I shook my head. Crouching by her side to pretend that I was worried about Cordelia, I said as softly as I could, "Don't worry. I've dealt with witchcraft before." Buffy looked slightly confused, as I smiled at her reassuringly. "I'm not the witch causing this, believe me. I just want to help." Admittedly, she looked doubtful, but she softly smiled back. "Come with me." She instructed. "I know someone who can help us try and reverse what's going on. And I think they might want to know what you know." I nodded back, as the pair of us got on our feet, helping Cordelia back over the road, to where she would be safe, hopefully.

Whoever this witch was, they were pretty reckless. I doubt anybody was truly safe while the witch was still on the loose. But, maybe, with Buffy and her friend's help, we would be able to identify the witch, before anybody got badly hurt.

Or worse.

AN: And I'm going to end it there! Thank you for reading; I hope you enjoyed! So, what do you guys think of this story so far? Are you enjoying it? I'd really like to know! Anyway, thanks once again, and I'll see you in the next chapter!